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Welcome to Podcasting Tech, a podcast that equips busy

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entrepreneurs engaged in podcasting with proven and cost effective

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solutions for achieving a professional sound and appearance. I'm

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Matthew Passi, your host and a fifteen year veteran in the podcasting

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space. We'll help you cut through the noise and offer guidance on software and

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hardware that can elevate the quality of your show. Tune in weekly

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for insightful interviews with tech creators, behind the scenes studio tours, and

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strategies for podcasting success. Head to

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podcastingtech.com to subscribe to this show on YouTube or your favorite

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podcast platform and join us on this exciting journey to unlock the full

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potential of your podcast. Very

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special guest on the show today, someone who, if you've been

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to podcasting events, especially Podfest, you probably know who he is. He's

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he's always there, and he's always has a big presence. It is

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Glenn Hebert aka Glenn the Geek, founder of the Horse Radio Network,

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and host of Horses in the Morning. Glenn, thank

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you for joining me tonight. Well, I'm glad to be here. And, you know, I

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don't know why we haven't done this sooner. I think we've known each other ten

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years at this point. It's a long time. Right. There's no reason why you shouldn't

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have been on before. It's funny because I it's a lot of people, they'll

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ask me about podcasting and advertising and niches

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and I always tell the story, when you and

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I first met or, you know, we were we were sitting down chatting at Podfest

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one year and you were talking about shows that are successful and

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levels of success. And I always remember, you know, horses in the morning, obviously,

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massive audience, big download numbers. But I always remember you telling me

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that you have that carriage horse racing show or you had that carriage horse

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racing show, and that actually had, like, bigger margins or was

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technically more profitable even though it was a really tiny audience. And I I took

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that to heart, and I always share that with people, you know, as far as,

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like, why niches are important. And I definitely wanna come back to that some more.

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But first, just real quickly, you have an interesting foray

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into podcasting, in particular into

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podcasting about all things horses. Tell us how you,

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you know, got started with horses in the morning and and eventually launched the

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network. Well, I, I was a performer for a long

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time. A matter of fact, I have a picture up here above my head that's,

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an acting company that I owned for ten years, and we did medieval

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feasts. We kinda did a Benny Hill version of a medieval feast. So it

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was fun. It was improv. It was we did 450 shows.

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And I got out of that, got into doing business stuff. I was

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in finance for a long time and, owned some companies and sold some

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companies. And then, I just needed an outlet

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for for the creative side again, you know, for the performer side.

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And my brother said, hey. There's this thing. I listened to Twit. I listened

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to Leo Laporte's Twit, and this was back in 02/2006.

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And he said, I think they called a podcast. You ought to check it out.

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Maybe that's something you could do. And that's and that's how it started.

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I, I did my first show in 02/2006, which was an immense

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failure because none of us knew what we were doing and nobody knew how to

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listen. And it was way ahead of where I should have been in the horse

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world. And then in 02/2008, I tried it again. Technology

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had caught up a little. Smartphones were just starting. You know, it was a little

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easier to listen to a podcast and then started

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a Stable Scoop show with my good friend Helena. And I knew I always wanted

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a network. So we started one show on the horse radio network.

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And I called it radio back then because nobody knew what a podcast was, but

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I could tell them it was online radio and they would kind of get it

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right. That's why it was radio network and not podcast

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network because, you know, back then, nobody knew. We barely

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knew. So people struggling today. Yeah. And then we started

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more shows. And then I always wanted to be a morning

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radio show guy, but I didn't wanna go to work.

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So that's when I put out a call for a cohost

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to start horses in the morning, which would be a daily show an hour an

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hour and a half every day, five days a week. And we started that in

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02/2010 with Jamie, my cohost, who came out of morning radio in

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Atlanta. She was in top four 40 morning radio in Atlanta. You know how

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the morning radio shows always have two guys and the girl, the token

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girl? Well, she was the token girl. You know? So, you know, she was that

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person, but she had, you know, done very well there and moved and

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decided she wanted to talk about horses. So we started horses in the morning,

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and now we're at 3,600 episodes fifteen years later.

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Incredible. Yeah. I I'm I guess

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what what made the show you think

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attractive to people? You know, like, you're you're doing this

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morning radio thing, but you're also keeping the focus on horses. Do you think

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having that focus helped in the success rate finding that

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specific niche, that specific filter to go through what's happening in your

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lives and what's happening in the world, was, you know, able to

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help you grow your audience? No question. I mean, horse people are addicted

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to horses. They spend all their time and money on horses, period. There's nothing else

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in their lives. So so we had that going for us. So it

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was a good niche. And there wasn't really any other podcast out there

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for horses. The Daily Show, I think I think

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the reason it well, it's what I always say. They come for the content, but

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they stay for the host. And that's true for podcasts or YouTube channels.

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If you think about all the YouTube channels you watch and subscribe to, subscribe

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to, you're subscribed because you like the presenters. You like the host. You like the

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people that are doing the show. There's a million travel shows out

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there. We subscribe to four or five different YouTube channels because we like

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them. So we would watch whatever they did. And, you know,

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and that's true of especially true of podcasts. So

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I think that, people came, tried out horses in the morning. It's a

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commitment to subscribe to a show that's gonna take five hours of your

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week. Right? That's a commitment because it's an hour every

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day. And they subscribe because they like me. They

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like Jamie. They especially like Jamie. She's probably my most popular cohost.

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But it's because we're vulnerable. We're out there. We talk about our lives. The show

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initially started to be about our guests, and now the biggest complaint we

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get is we have too many guests. And it's not enough for us

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because the show really has become about us and our lives in the horse world

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and how it relates to horses because everybody we're just average horse people. I'm a

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horse husband. I wasn't even, you know, a horse guy to start with. She's a

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trainer. So it it really we have that kind of I

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asked the dumb questions. She asked the intelligent questions. But that

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kinda works. Right? And now now fifth you know,

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6,000 interviews later, I probably know more about horses

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than most horse people, but that's just because of doing the

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show. But I think that's why people hung around. They got invested in us, and

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I think that's why our Patreon community is there and so addicted. And

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it's why it works, is because

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we were like them. Now we and we do some good interviews, and, you

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know, we have some fun along the way. It's a comedy show, first and foremost.

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It's entertainment. And and I think the other thing is I was the first

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one to really start the segment instead of doing just

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a long interview show. We will have four or five

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segments in the show. So our interview is never more than ten to

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fifteen minutes, and then we're done with the interview and moving on to a

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different segment. So there was all if you weren't interested in that guest, you

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just fast forward fifteen minutes, and you were at something else. If you didn't like

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the something else, fast forward fifteen minutes, you were at something else. So we always

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had segments, in the show, and some of them are recurring

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segments every week, some are once a month, you know, and some are

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just one offs. But they always knew that there's gonna be something new

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in about ten, fifteen minutes. I the

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idea of segments is so interesting. One of the shows that I've been listening to

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podcasting forever is Wait Wait on Tommy, and that is a highly

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structured show. Now, of course, it started as a radio show, so it made

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sense where they had to fit to the clock, but they've kept that structure

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all along the way. And it's interesting because I I like

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listening. I feel like a comfort in listening. And anytime they break

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the mold, right, they do a best of show or they do something else. I'm

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always just a little bit uncomfortable listening. And so, like, did

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you have that thought about the familiarity of segments, or

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was it just something that you felt like it worked and you just kept wanting

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to come back to it? I stole the none of these are new

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ideas. Right? Nothing we do is new. So I stole the idea from

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a morning syndicated radio show called Bob and Cherry. And I've become good

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friends with them now since then, by the way. But they were

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on for years, and I listened to them for years. And I was like, I

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wanna do a segmented show like they do because they had regular guests,

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one guy that came on did movie reviews, and I so look forward to him

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coming on. So I knew if we could get regular guests that would show up

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once a month, that people would look forward to that too, and they would look

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forward to the segments that we do. The most popular thing we do, hands down,

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is on Fridays. The last thing we do on a Friday, and

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I knew I needed something that was gonna keep people to the last thing on

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a Friday show, right, before they head into the weekend to ride their horse,

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is we do something called really bad ads. And that's where listeners

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submit bad Craigslist and Facebook ads for horses for sale. And

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we just make fun of them. Basically, we just make fun of them.

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And it's our most popular thing we do. We get hundreds of people submitting every

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month. And then we got sponsors that wanted to give away prizes. So we

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give away prizes every month. We randomly pick three of the

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people who submitted bad ads, and we give away 4 or $500 worth of

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prizes every month for people who submit bad ads. And

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so, you know, that was that was just that happened by

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accident, and it was one of the all the good segments we do now happen

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by accident along the way, and we just followed them. I love that.

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Just kinda follow what works, try different things, and you just

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gotta kinda trust your gut. And I love that idea that you save

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it for the very end. Lots of folks are always, you know, wondering, how do

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I get people to listen to the very end of the show? And it's like,

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you have to have a hook. You have to have something that people

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wait for. And and there are lots of shows that do this really

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well, but I think the way you just described it is brilliant that you were

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really conscious of that thought. So so what happens next? You, you know, you

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did the first show, The Stable Scoop, then you do Horses in the Morning. Where

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does it go from there in terms of growing the network? Well, I I

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I knew that we had we had identified a ton of niches in the horse

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world that we could do shows about. My thing

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was always finding the right host. So my first goal was to

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find the right host, and I did that usually by doing

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interviews on one of the shows. So we'd have them a guest on one of

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the shows, and I'd go, that person may would make a good host. And then

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we would I'd figure out what niche they really were good in

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or competed in or whatever, And then I would approach them, and that we always

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started with the host and then built the show. And

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so, you know, we built, 20 plus shows over the

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years, and I would never start a show unless they

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had a sponsor either. So the two things I had to have was a good

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host, a good sponsor, and a good marketing partner.

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So I'll give you an example. We started a show. There's a there's a very

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boring and I'm not everybody knows how I feel about this. There's a very

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boring but very popular, competition in the horse world called

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dressage. It's kinda like dancing. You know? And it for horse

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husbands, it's boring. My wife did it, so I had to watch it. So,

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I, you know, I can speak from spirits. But we've the Dressage

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Federation in The United States was, we approached them about

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being a a media partner for that show. So now and making it the official

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podcast for that for, Dressage.

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So twelve years ago, we started that show, and they were a marketing

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partner. What that got us was an audience. There was no money exchanged

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hands, but they promoted the show. So it brought an audience in.

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And here we are twelve years later. That show is still one of our most

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popular shows, and we're still the official show of the of the federation.

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So it was media partners, sponsors, and

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the right host. I I'm I'm envisioning you

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at these events, you know, sitting at a table almost like dodgeball

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with Jason Bateman and what's his face, you know. You know, talking about the

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Ocho and, you know, like, just having fun, like, watching people do it is. Do

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you go to the events and kind of broadcast from there as well?

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Not as much. We've been we get invited to 10 events a month.

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And the problem with that is every time you leave the house, it's

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$1,500. You know, it's funny because I would I

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would tell people that and they don't believe you, but when you figure it out,

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if you take everything into consideration, every time I leave the house to go to

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an event, it's at least $1,500. So we knew we couldn't cover everything

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and be able to afford it and be able to sustain it, so we didn't.

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We just didn't. We went to key a couple key events every year to shows

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every year. But the one thing we never missed was the

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wholesaler show with wholesalers and retailers in the horse world. There

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was two of those every year. I've been to almost 40 of them

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now. And we went to those, one, to highlight new products that were coming out

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because our listeners love hearing about new products, but two was to find sponsors. It's

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at those in person events where we found 80% of our

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sponsors. Because when you're face to face with someone, you got their

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attention. And if you give them something and then approach them

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about sponsoring, so we give them an interview where they could highlight their new product,

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put it on a show, and follow-up with them, They would see a

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result from the interview. They the you know, that talking about that new

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product, they see sales coming in, and then we had their attention, and we'd go

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after them for sponsors after that. So it was that in person

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wholesaler meat retailer show where we and then eventually

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by the way, we do their podcast now, the Wholesale Show's

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podcast. And we go there now and do shows. We actually

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record shows at at the event in Dallas. But, you know, it

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was always finding a marketing partner. And I, you know, we we got we

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were the first ones to have press passes at an event like this because nobody

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ever did that. And then, you know, I just approached them and said, why don't

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you do your own show? And that show has a smaller audience,

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maybe five to 700 a month, but it's targeted to the

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retailers, you know, where the wholesalers meet the retailers. So that's a very

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targeted show and very effective that way. But

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yeah. So we do their show now too. It's all about partnerships.

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It's all about who you meet. And, you know, it it's all about who knows

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you, not who you know, but who knows you. That's the most important

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thing. Do people know you? I I'm I I

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wanna go back to this idea of the wholesalers at the interview

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and talking to them. And but real quickly, let's go back to that idea of

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the the, you know, the super niche. Right? The CaraTaurus racing or

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dressage. Like, what did you find when you

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were creating these extremely niche shows

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with these wholesalers or, you know, all these very specific topics. Like, how did

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those compare to the more general day to day, you

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know, talk show format that focused around horses but

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wasn't, you know, as super niche as some of these other ones? It was easier

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to find sponsors for the niche shows because, you know, a lot of

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your sponsors our sponsors in our world are medium to

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smaller companies. A lot of them, you know, they have three or four employees,

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but they target they target that niche. They have saddles or bridles or

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whatever for that specific discipline. So it

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was actually easier to target them and have them come

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aboard and actually have them do well. So, you know, we're doing this

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because we want them to sell stuff. You know, we're our goal is to help

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them sell stuff. So we were never looking for the large companies, the

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ones with ad agencies, because they weren't looking at us either. Right? They don't wanna

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be bothered. So we always we always talk to the

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medium to small companies because I can do I could help them grow. Our first

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sponsor years ago, fifteen years ago now, is

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still our biggest sponsor today. And she says, you

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know, over the last fifteen years, she's gotten more direct response from

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our shows than any other advertising they do, and they do a lot, like, you

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know, well into 6 figure advertising. But she said, I hear more

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from your people who say I listened to you know, I heard you on the

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show. I I have this question for you about my horse. She

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said, that's who I hear from. I don't hear from somebody that says I saw

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a magazine ad. You know? Because our advertising is so

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personal. It's you know? I I can say, hey. Look. I use Kentucky

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performance products with my pony, and this is why. That's

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much more personal than seeing a magazine ad. And, you know, I'm owned

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now by a company that owns 10 magazines, so they love when I say

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this stuff. But I'm sure they do. I

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have to imagine too that being part of that magazine, allows them

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to sell, like, big bundled advertising. They do. Is right. Like Yeah. And now

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and, you know, we sold I sold the network, to

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almost three years ago now and to, one of the largest

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media companies in the horse world. And they they didn't have an audio

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side. They had magazines. They had video. They owned some

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companies as well, some production companies, but, they didn't have the audio

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side. So they wanted that tripod, and they were missing the audio.

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So that's why they took a look at buying us. And, it took about six

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months of negotiations. Fortunately, I had a very good lawyer.

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And, you know, we made the deal, and, my deal was that I would

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continue on for three years after running the network. And that very

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seldom works out with principals. They usually last six months, and

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either they're fired or they leave. It never works out, actually.

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You know that as well as I do. It just doesn't work. People say they're

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gonna do it, but here I am because they've been very good to me, and

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I've tried to continue doing my job to my best ability. And then

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hopefully, continuing on after October, I'll I'll just be hosted

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horse hosting horses in the morning, and then somebody else will be running the

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network. That's the goal. Very nice. Yeah. I have some experience. I I

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stayed on for six months with the company when when it was sold in a

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totally consulting role, right, just helping them out as much as I could, very amicable.

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But, yeah, a lot of people when I was approached about the sale said, don't

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try and stay on. It it never works out, so I understand. Well, you

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know, it's different though with podcasting because if you think about it, you know, I

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host, you know, one of the most popular show on the network. You

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can't do that because that show then goes away. You know?

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It was my relationships with these sponsors and all of that that

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was built. So I think they were smart enough to realize, hey. This guy can't

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go away or we just lose our investment. And in podcasting, that's different

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because it is all about the personalities. That's true. People are coming

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for you and your co host. One one thing you said earlier that I wanna

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just touch on real quickly, you know, you you talk to these

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wholesalers and you interview them and then you get them to

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sponsor. They need to pitch them to have their own show and you you

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help them target their specific audience, which are the retailers.

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What is your strategy for real

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efficient podcast marketing

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targeting something so specific as that? It's the media

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partners. It's the partners we have because they have the audience

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already. So in this case in this case, it was kinda easy. So when you

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have the wholesale show, they already have a you know, they they know who their

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clients are. They know who the retailers that come to the show are. So we're

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targeting them directly. It becomes a little easier because they're already in communication with them

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through social media and email and all of that. With a

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more general show like Courses in the Morning, it's word-of-mouth. You know, you

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know, you still see the statistics come out. It was more so

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years ago that the only way people came to your show is through

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word-of-mouth. 70% of people found you through word-of-mouth because search wasn't that

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good years ago for podcasting. You know that. That's only gotten better since

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COVID, really. And yeah. Yeah. And you're right. It's still not great. Right?

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You search horses now and and you'll get all but horse in the morning

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doesn't come up first. Depending on what search engine you use.

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So we knew word-of-mouth. So we actually did campaigns throughout the year

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to encourage our our listeners to tell their friends. You

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know, you're at the barn today. Go tell your all your friends at the barn

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that you listen to the show. Or better yet, put the if they own the

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barn, put the show on and let them listen to it. And a lot of

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our listeners actually play the show in the barn, on

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speakers. So they listen to it every day because we hear from them all the

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time, you know, that they're we do horse whinnies throughout the show occasionally.

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And they said, every time that horse whinnies, my horse is whinnying back.

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You know? So it's that kind of thing. It was it's word-of-mouth. And

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you know as well as I do, for somebody to subscribe to a new

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podcast, it's a commitment for them. They're thinking

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about, do I have time for this? They're subconsciously going, we do it too when

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we subscribe to stuff. We're going, do I have time to listen to this show,

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or will I have to take the time to listen to this show?

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So it's a real commitment. I think that's become harder over the years.

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I think now it's harder for people to commit because there

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are they have all this other stuff they can commit to, audiobooks

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and, you know, a million podcasts and all of that.

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So our our challenge has become, how do we teach people what a

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podcast is to how do we now get

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people to listen to ours as opposed to the 5,000 others, you know, that are

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in our niche? Yeah. I I

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it's interesting. I I find that I don't have a problem with, do I have

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the time to commit to a different show? Because usually I'm finding something because I'm

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getting bored of something else. It's it's the time

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to figure out if I'm gonna like it. Right? Because because it

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you know, you listen to the first episode, you you have no familiarity with it.

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Right? Maybe they're inside jokes or, you know, maybe there's something about the personality that

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is just new to you, and it takes a while for you to get so

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comfortable with it that you wanna listen. And, you know, that that's usually

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my struggle is, you know, I know I'm looking for a show about x, and

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I listen to a bunch and I go, Right? Like and then I I

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find myself just going back to the shows that I don't like because at least

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there's that familiarity with it. Isn't that interesting?

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And, you know, we always say, like, with the morning show, with the daily show,

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it's even it's a serious commitment, right, for people to subscribe to that.

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So we always say it takes them people and our our surveys have

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proved this. It takes people about a week to to figure it out

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and to go, okay. I really like this. I'm gonna hang around. They almost have

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to have to listen for a week. Now I would say, though,

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with most podcasts that you try, you determine in the first three minutes whether

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you're gonna hang around or not. You determine in the first three minutes that you're

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not gonna hang around. Right? You may not commit

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to to it for a long term. You may give it more time to do

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that, but in the first three minutes, you're determining whether you're gonna you you bugged

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out if you're totally not into this. And it why? It's because you

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usually don't like the host. Yep. Yep. That that is

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true. Well, we do like this house. We're speaking with Glenn Heber to Glenn McGeek,

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founder of the Horse Radio Network, host of Horses in the Morning.

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Before we let you go, there's three questions that we've been asking everybody about the

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podcasting world. And since you've been in it for so long, I think, you know,

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the audience is gonna find real value in your answers. The first thing is, is

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there a place in podcasting where you would like

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to see some improvement, whether it's from production,

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distribution, marketing, consumption, right, like discovery? What's that

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one thing where you're just like, man, we we still need to fix this?

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I would say, and this has been my preaching for the last

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several years, is we need Apple and the major podcast

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players to segregate out dead shows from active

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shows. There's you know, when you take a look at the

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4,200,000 shows that are out there, what what do

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we see recently? It's almost 400,000 that are active in the last ninety

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days. That's a lot of crap just sitting there that's not being

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updated. And I know when I go look for shows in a specific topic, the

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first thing I look at is, are they still producing? And it's so

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frustrating because you'll go through 20 shows that haven't done an

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episode in in two years and to find the one that's still

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active. So I know we because of,

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you know, seasoned shows like Serial, we can't get rid of those

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shows. They can't just disappear off the podcast player. So I am

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proposing that we have an archived section and an

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active section on podcast players. So you can search

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specifically for active shows. And maybe that's whatever active is determined to

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be. You know, they produced an episode in the last ninety days, six

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months, whatever that is, year. And then you can

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also search the archive shows. I think that's the solution to that

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problem, and I do think it's a problem. It's frustrating. You know,

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that's that's a really interesting idea. And as soon as you said that, I was

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thinking of a few shows that I listened to that were, like, you know, specialized

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niche topics. Like, Rob Reiner did a whole thing on the JFK assassination,

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and, you know, there was, one on

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Uber or Airbnb, right, the rise and fall of these, you know, tech CEOs,

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Jeffrey Epstein kind of stuff. And, like, those are small

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series, and, yes, they haven't put out an episode in two, three years,

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but they're still interesting and topical. My concern to what

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you're saying but I think it's fascinating, interesting, but, you know, what

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we will see now are shows that will have done

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something like that, right, short series, and then they'll just release

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weird stuff every ninety days just to make sure they stay in the good section.

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And and that's why I think that if I were to do it, if I

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was a Pocket Casts, let's for instance. Right? I

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would have the search automatically go to both sections, but then you can

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so the default is everybody, all the shows. But

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then you can you can go, hey. Look. I just wanna search archived, or I

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just wanna search active. So so it's up

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to us as the listener then to have control. And I'm always

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about listeners having control. So I still think

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that's still my biggest pet peeve. Yeah. No. I I like it. I think

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you're frustration from being a listener searching for shows. Yeah. I

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think you're definitely on to something. I I, you know, I think it the bad

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idea needs massaging, but Apple, I know you're listening.

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Get on it. Glenn Glenn is asking you. What about tech? Is

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there any tech on your list, wish list, whether it's something out there

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that you haven't purchased or something that you're like, god, I need somebody to make

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this to make my life easier. Again, production or or

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consumption. You know, I think it was solved for me

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when the Rodecaster, came out and when the

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mixers that are specifically made for podcasting came out.

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That's what solved it for me. The Zoom p four for going to shows.

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So the Zoom p four, I can hook four microphones up to, hook it to

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my laptop, show up at somebody's barn, and I don't even need power.

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And everything runs off battery. I can do an entire episode right

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there in their barn aisle, and I can carry it in

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a small case. So, you know, when

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we first started, we were using music mixers. And to be honest, I didn't

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understand 95% of the buttons on it. Right? I didn't know when any of them

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did. I I didn't wanna know. So when the RODECaster Pros

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and those came out, that that really solved a lot of the problems that

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that I had. So I would say I'm happy with where things are now.

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Microphones, we used to have to pick from one, you know, or

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two. And now we have, you know, a hundred to pick from. And I bought

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a lot of them, and I don't even know what I'm using currently. Yeah. I

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have no idea. I don't care, as little as it sounds. You just

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cycle through a I'm not really a better if you have a stock. Not a

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stuff guy. So it you know, I have content over

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stuff. Fair enough. I I like that idea, by the way, because, yeah, you're in

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barns. How many barns have power outlets? Probably not very many,

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if if not any. So it's a really interesting find. And then with the p

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four, right, the batteries, that that works really nicely. Alright. And then the last

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question is, what is, what podcasts are you listening to

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today? Like, what is that show that when the new episode comes out,

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you are going to stop what you're doing, check it out, or what's

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that show that you know I'm I will not miss an episode.

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I'm still, after thirty years, listening to Bob and Sherry.

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That was the syndicated radio show. Of course, that was a podcast now.

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And they've started other podcasts. And I know the, the producer of

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that show. I've met him at conferences, and we talk all the time. And he

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actually asked me about podcasting stuff. So I listened to that. That's one I

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will not miss. Ironically, I have two daily shows I listen to all the time,

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and that's DT and S, which is the daily tech news show.

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That was Tom Merritt. And I listened to him from probably about twenty

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years ago doing multiple different shows. He's his own network now. They do very well

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with Patreon too. They have about, it was a

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16,000 Patreon subscribers at Daily Tech News Show. They're one of the

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biggest, and they're completely supported by

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Patreon, support. So those two, Bob and Sherry and

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the Daily Tech News Show. And then, of course, ask the podcast coach,

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one of my favorites. And then, of course, School of Podcasting. Dave

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Jackson's been my mentor. He doesn't know it, but he's been my mentor

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since day one, you know, years ago, when I met

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him. So, yeah, those are the ones I listen to religiously. And then

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there are one other two, and I'll mention him because, he's a friend of mine,

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and I love the show, was What Was That Like with Scott

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Johnson. That's an interesting Yeah. Yeah. He gets the weirdest

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stories of people who've been through, like, you know, my parachute didn't open and

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I lived. You know? And then they tell the story, that kind of thing. And

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some are highly selective about his show because some of the things I

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can't listen to. You know? But, he's one of the shows that I can't

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listen to every episode because because I my brain don't handle it.

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But I like that show too. Yeah. You know, I I I remember his

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marketing is so effective because he would put up a a picture or, you

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know, a a big post with words on it, and he would say, right. Like,

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I, you know, jumped out of a plane and my parachute didn't open and I

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lived. You're like, yep. I've got to hear more. Right? Like, it was

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just great FOMO marketing. He has done

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probably better than anybody I know at marketing and also

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creating a community, which we have too, but he's created

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community on Facebook of listeners. He provided them a place to

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go, which is a mistake that a lot of podcasts make because they don't give

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their listeners a place to talk. And he did that, and it's it's

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one of the most active I've seen. It's very active.

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Ours is too. You know? Ours are a lot alike that way, but, yeah,

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we are we've limit our closed group to

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Patreon supporters. So I kinda put a paywall in the way of our

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closed group because I wanted people who are really serious so I'd keep out

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the you know, so there wouldn't be political posts and things like that. Riffraff.

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Yeah. Yeah. And and, you know, that that idea

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of having a community and having it, a paywall to get

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into it is for podcasters who are trying to monetize and don't have

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a budget, a free and easy way to start earning

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money right away. It costs you nothing to start a private

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Facebook group and to just invite people in. Yes, it's a little bit slower,

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but, right, somebody somebody will pay you $510 20 for

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access to a group that provides value versus hoping that you

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get 5,000 downloads and have an advertiser pay you $25 for

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every thousand you get. So, great great mention, great callback to,

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the power of community and and whatnot, and my god, great advice. We could probably

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do this for six days and, still not go through all the knowledge that you

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have, but we have been listening to Glenn Hebert, Glenn the Geek,

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founder of the Horse Radio Network, host of Horses in the

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Morning. And if you have never been to Podfest

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in Orlando, I implore you to go. You can

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just go. Always there, and he's always doing something to make

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the crowd laugh and to put on a good show, and, you know, go there

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and say hi to him. He's he's a great great person,

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and really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much. Thanks, Matthew. Thanks

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for joining us today on Podcasting Tech. There are links to all the

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hardware and software that help power our guest content and

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podcasting tech available in the show notes and on our website

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at podcastingtech.com. You can also subscribe to the show on your

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favorite platform, connect with us on social media, and even leave a rating and review

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while you're there. Thanks, and we'll see you next time on Podcasting

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Tech.