1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:25,640 Hey everyone, Ashley here with RSS.com podcasting. 2 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:29,520 On today's episode, I'm talking with Jared Easley, the co-founder of Podcast Movement. 3 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:34,100 We'll be jamming on all things about the conference, community, and so much more. 4 00:00:34,100 --> 00:00:35,100 Enjoy the show. 5 00:00:35,100 --> 00:00:38,800 Well, Jared, I'm so excited you could be here on the show with us today. 6 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,880 Can you do me a quick favor and tell me a little bit about what you do? 7 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:44,440 Hi, my name is Jared. 8 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:47,840 And I usually when I tell people my name is Jared in the US, I'll tell them that it's 9 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:50,720 Jared like the jewelry store. 10 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:53,160 I used to say Jared like the subway guy. 11 00:00:53,160 --> 00:00:58,840 And for people in the US, they'll get that and it's you don't really tell that joke anymore. 12 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:02,460 And then my last name is Easley and I'll say it's Easley to remember. 13 00:01:02,460 --> 00:01:05,400 And then most people will remember my name when I say that. 14 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:09,920 So Jared Easley, I live in South Florida, but I'm originally from Alabama, but I've 15 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:11,640 kind of moved around. 16 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:17,160 I was a rambling man for a little bit, jumped around and went to different places. 17 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:18,160 I was in the military. 18 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:23,120 I lived in Hawaii and some other spots that were fun and not so fun. 19 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:27,080 And then, yeah, my wife is originally from Fort Lauderdale. 20 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:30,840 So when I moved to Florida in 2003, I was living in Orlando and she was a travel nurse 21 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,440 and we met and we started dating, got married. 22 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:36,400 And now I'm ultimately down here in Fort Lauderdale. 23 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:40,680 I don't think when I was younger, whatever I would have imagined myself in South Florida, 24 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:42,980 but I absolutely love it now. 25 00:01:42,980 --> 00:01:46,240 My daughter is happy to be near grandma, grandpa. 26 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:50,200 And yeah, my wife loves it because she's from here and her family's here and her friends 27 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:51,200 are here. 28 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:56,220 There's actually a lot of really awesome people and good things about this community down 29 00:01:56,220 --> 00:01:58,480 here and it's very diverse. 30 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:05,520 And so from coming from Alabama and then some of the experiences I had post Alabama were, 31 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:06,720 you know, military and things like that. 32 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:12,720 It's kind of neat now to be in a place like Fort Lauderdale where it is so different. 33 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:16,880 That said, podcasting is a passion and absolutely love it. 34 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:21,880 I started my show when I was in 2013 and that was just for fun. 35 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:24,600 Really no delusions of grandeur there. 36 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:28,960 Just wanting to say, Hey, can I create content and what am I going to talk about? 37 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:29,960 I don't know what that is. 38 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:34,400 So I figured, let me just interview other people so you can share their wisdom and their 39 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:36,880 expertise and that would bring value. 40 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:41,280 So that's the route that I took and fell in love with it, made a lot of really amazing 41 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:43,880 connections, got ideas for businesses. 42 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,400 One of which is podcast movement, which is how we have met. 43 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:51,560 And podcast movement is the world's largest conference for podcasting. 44 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:53,000 It's also a media company. 45 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:57,100 We do newsletters and we have professional services and we have several other things 46 00:02:57,100 --> 00:03:00,680 that we do, but it's just been an absolute blast. 47 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:09,480 In the podcast community back in 2013, 2014, you didn't see as much collaboration between 48 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:11,400 niches. 49 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:15,760 So like a comedian wasn't really interacting with the business podcaster, for example. 50 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:20,560 And you see a lot more of that now and not to toot our horn, but I think podcast movement 51 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:25,240 has kind of helped facilitate a lot of those types of collaborations with different niches 52 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:28,640 and different podcasting genres. 53 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:33,200 And because of that, we learn from each other and we get better ideas on, hey, this person's 54 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:34,200 trying this. 55 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:37,520 Let's see what that's like in our space. 56 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:42,520 And so you get some of that crossover and podcasting is just continuing to grow and 57 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:45,400 it's an exciting thing and anyone can do it. 58 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:51,000 And just because anyone can do it doesn't mean it's going to take off and do amazing. 59 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:55,680 But I love the fact that it's democratized and anyone can do it and anyone can share 60 00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:56,680 their voice. 61 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,880 And if they're a little creative and they're kind of niche down, they have some opportunity 62 00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:02,360 to get noticed and do some good things. 63 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:07,400 So that's in a nutshell, if that really answered the question like you'd hoped, but that's 64 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:10,560 my answer and I'll stick with it for now. 65 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:11,920 It did answer my question. 66 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:17,880 Now, so podcast movements, it started as a company before it was a conference. 67 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:18,880 Is that right? 68 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:24,320 We, when I say we, I'm talking about Dan Franks, who is the president of the podcast movement, 69 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:26,700 also my business partner and myself. 70 00:04:26,700 --> 00:04:30,940 We were podcasters, lowly podcasters at that. 71 00:04:30,940 --> 00:04:37,120 And he had a show that I found that was entrepreneurial is called Entrepreneurial Showdown. 72 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:38,360 And I just liked the show. 73 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:42,120 I thought it was creative the way he did the show and so I reached out to him. 74 00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:46,160 I knew he was in Dallas because I'd listened to the podcast and I was going to be at a 75 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:51,280 conference in Dallas and I thought, hey, it'd be fun to try to do a podcast listener meetup. 76 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:53,480 He had a podcast, I had a podcast. 77 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:54,480 So I reached out to him. 78 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:55,480 He didn't know me at all. 79 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:56,480 And I was like, hey, I'm Jared. 80 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:57,480 I have this show. 81 00:04:57,480 --> 00:04:58,480 I listen to your show. 82 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:00,480 I'm going to be in Dallas for this conference. 83 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:02,640 I thought, hey, let's have a podcast meetup. 84 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:06,320 And so we agreed not even meeting each other. 85 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:07,320 Hey, let's have a meetup. 86 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:08,320 So we had a meetup. 87 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:11,360 And we had like 20 people come between his friends and some of my friends that live in 88 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:12,360 Dallas for Earth. 89 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:16,400 And that kind of created a connection and a friendship. 90 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:24,520 And that later evolved into just being aware and focusing on what were some of the pain 91 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:29,080 points in podcasting, which we realized after a few months that there wasn't a place, a 92 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,000 central place or a conference for podcasting. 93 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:36,760 There was other events that had podcasting elements included, but it wasn't just exclusive 94 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:37,760 to podcasting. 95 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:41,720 So we thought, hey, maybe that's something that we could start. 96 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:46,640 And I laugh at that now because we had no experience in events. 97 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:50,960 We had just been interested in taking action and doing something. 98 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:55,480 We were kind of the day job guys that were dreaming of maybe breaking away at some point, 99 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:57,280 maybe having our own business. 100 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:01,360 And so we decided, hey, let's try to do this conference. 101 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:03,040 Well, we were not connected. 102 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:04,760 We didn't have an email list. 103 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:09,860 We didn't have a number of the things that experts would say you need to start a successful 104 00:06:09,860 --> 00:06:14,280 event or successful business. 105 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:20,040 We were just blinded by ambition and, hey, let's do this. 106 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:24,760 And I think if we knew now what we didn't know then, I don't know that we would have 107 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:31,880 done it because there was a lot of challenges that came up as we started this process. 108 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:36,320 But what we did, given the circumstances, was we reached out to people that we knew 109 00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:41,000 were podcasters, specifically in the business niche, people that we weren't friends with 110 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:44,800 and maybe we had guests on our shows and that kind of thing. 111 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:47,360 And told them, hey, we think there's a need for a podcast conference. 112 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:48,920 We want to try to coordinate one. 113 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:51,880 We're going to do it in Dallas. 114 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:55,520 And we'd love for you to speak or we'd love for you to share it with your network and 115 00:06:55,520 --> 00:06:56,520 support it. 116 00:06:56,520 --> 00:07:00,840 We're going to do a crowdfunding campaign because we don't have enough money to just 117 00:07:00,840 --> 00:07:03,320 chunk into something that's going to fail. 118 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:04,540 So that was our validation. 119 00:07:04,540 --> 00:07:07,640 We did a crowdfunding Kickstarter campaign. 120 00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:10,920 We decided, okay, if this campaign is successful, we'll pursue the event. 121 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:16,440 And if it's not, then that's our turn around and run, you know, notice. 122 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:21,280 So we put out a crowdfunding campaign, just messaged a bunch of people that we knew, hey, 123 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:22,280 we support this. 124 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:23,280 We share it. 125 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:26,120 We, I mean, we had no email lists. 126 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:27,120 We had nothing. 127 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:28,600 We weren't even influential at all. 128 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:29,600 Not at all. 129 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:32,080 We were just brand new podcasters, not even a year maybe. 130 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,400 And so we just said, hey, would you like to support this? 131 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:37,960 And surprisingly, there was another people that raised their hands and said, yeah, we 132 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:38,960 would. 133 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:44,560 And I think the minimum amount we needed to, because we envisioned just a small event, 134 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:49,400 maybe, you know, we were like, oh, what if we had 200 podcasters? 135 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:52,280 In our minds at that time, that was like massive. 136 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:56,800 And not that it isn't massive, it is, but that's what we thought was like, wow, this 137 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:01,600 would be just over the top if we were able to get 200 people. 138 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:06,480 And I think the minimum number we needed for that crowdfunding campaign was $10,000. 139 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:10,080 So we, well, we put the campaign out there. 140 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:11,980 We told our friends, it went live. 141 00:08:11,980 --> 00:08:15,840 And then after the first day, we had more than $10,000, which just blew my mind. 142 00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:23,360 I was like, I can't believe that because we're not anybody special and we're not connected 143 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:25,640 and we're not influential and we don't have an email list. 144 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:28,320 And, you know, people are supporting this. 145 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:29,800 And it got the attention of a lot of people. 146 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:30,800 They're like, who are these guys? 147 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:33,800 Like, well, who are they to do this? 148 00:08:33,800 --> 00:08:39,360 There was some interesting, I won't call it opposition, just people questioning our motives 149 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:40,360 and our intent. 150 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:42,680 And that was okay, because we weren't worried about that. 151 00:08:42,680 --> 00:08:43,880 We were just trying to put together. 152 00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:49,000 So we ended up at the end of that month of that campaign, we raised like over three times 153 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:51,840 what we needed just to get the proof of concept. 154 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:59,920 And from there we sold tickets and sponsorships and just did our best to put together a conference. 155 00:08:59,920 --> 00:09:02,120 And we ended up having 600 people that first year. 156 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:03,120 That was in 2014. 157 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:06,520 So again, I thought 200 was a big deal. 158 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:08,280 600 was what we had. 159 00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:11,880 So it was like, whoa, a big epiphany. 160 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:20,000 But if you do events and you do them in a quality, a high quality way, you realize quickly 161 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:27,920 that you've, a certain amount of money is just needed to produce an event. 162 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:32,320 And so we had enough money to produce it, but we didn't really make anything. 163 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:36,120 And that was deflating slightly because there was a lot of work that went into it. 164 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,320 But at the same time, we realized, no, there's proof of concept here. 165 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:41,600 So we didn't get discouraged by that. 166 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:43,240 We just continued to keep at it. 167 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:51,400 And we were working our day jobs and four years later of working for free, we finally 168 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:53,600 had enough money to say, okay, let's go all in. 169 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:55,580 Let's be full time. 170 00:09:55,580 --> 00:09:59,080 And so we got enough money to pay ourselves, I think, for six months. 171 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:02,760 And they're like, if we can't do this in six months, if we can't just be fully focused 172 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:07,280 on it and do this in six months, then it's probably time to hang it up or try something 173 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:08,280 else. 174 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:12,720 So we, after four years of not making any money and doing the event, they grow in gradually 175 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:18,080 and us putting any money that was made back into the event, we finally went full time. 176 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:21,800 And now there's been no looking back since even with COVID, we never had to lay anyone 177 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:24,400 off, which we're thankful for that. 178 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:29,000 We had to pivot, of course, had to make some adjustments to the business, which was positive 179 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:30,000 and a good thing. 180 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:36,360 But yeah, now we're in a position, 2022, where Podcast Movement is considered an industry 181 00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:37,360 conference. 182 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:45,120 The people from Apple and Spotify and iHeart and just all the big organizations that you 183 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:50,920 would think of when you think of podcasting are typically represented or they're attending. 184 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:54,760 And so it's really neat to see how something was just an idea. 185 00:10:54,760 --> 00:11:00,160 Now it's a thing that's become more of a big deal and just an opportunity for a lot of 186 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:03,040 podcasters, whether they're independent or whether they're people that have been in the 187 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:07,120 industry for a long time or they're veteran podcasters to come together and just learn 188 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:08,880 from each other. 189 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:11,880 And yeah, so we've got two events this year. 190 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:15,280 We got one in LA in March. 191 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:16,280 That one's called Evolutions. 192 00:11:16,280 --> 00:11:18,120 And then we have another one in Dallas. 193 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:19,120 That's in August. 194 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:20,440 That's our big one. 195 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:21,440 And we're really excited. 196 00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:24,400 And yeah, COVID was a curve ball for everybody. 197 00:11:24,400 --> 00:11:29,600 And we hope that it'll be safe and continue to have some safety protocols in place and 198 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:34,160 just do our best to deliver a really high quality event. 199 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:38,160 And so that's what we're prepping for now and looking forward to. 200 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:41,680 I think one of the things that you said that kind of struck me is you said that if you 201 00:11:41,680 --> 00:11:45,280 had known what you were going to face, the obstacles you were going to face, you might 202 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:46,960 not have actually gone through with it. 203 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:51,560 I think that kind of speaks to the whole ignorance is bliss thing. 204 00:11:51,560 --> 00:11:56,800 But at the same time though, it feels like to me that one of the reasons why you were 205 00:11:56,800 --> 00:12:01,360 able to fund it so quickly is at the time, like you said, just a couple of different 206 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:05,200 conferences were kind of having tracks on the idea of podcasting. 207 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:06,600 It was at New Media Expo. 208 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:11,600 It was mentioned at BlogHer, BlogHer conference and things like that. 209 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:16,120 But there wasn't truly a space for people who are sitting at home alone talking to their 210 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:20,240 microphones to come out and get together. 211 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:24,400 So tell me a little bit about those first conversations, like those first, let's do 212 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:25,400 a conference. 213 00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:26,400 What was that like? 214 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:29,000 You and Dan, you're just spit balling with each other. 215 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:33,120 How in the world did you decide it would be an actual conference rather than just another 216 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:34,120 meetup? 217 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:35,120 Sure. 218 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:38,360 We had attended New Media Expo, which you mentioned, and we had met a lot of people 219 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:40,320 that were interested in podcasting. 220 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:45,680 Podcasting was a very redheaded stepchild, small corner piece of that event. 221 00:12:45,680 --> 00:12:51,960 But the number of attendees that were at that event largely were interested in podcasting. 222 00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:58,200 And that struck me was, okay, here's people saying, why isn't there a podcast conference? 223 00:12:58,200 --> 00:12:59,640 And we hear that multiple times. 224 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:02,240 Like, okay, I thought that too. 225 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:05,640 That to me was an undeniable sign that there needed to be one, whether it should have been 226 00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:08,480 Dan and I to start it, you know, is irrelevant. 227 00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:10,560 We neither should be one. 228 00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:15,680 We just kind of blindly jumped in and said, okay, let's go for it. 229 00:13:15,680 --> 00:13:17,860 That was a learning process to say the least. 230 00:13:17,860 --> 00:13:21,560 But we thought through as good as we could. 231 00:13:21,560 --> 00:13:24,600 We decided on Dallas for the first year. 232 00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:29,120 And one of the reasons we picked that is because that is a one-way flight for most US cities 233 00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:31,200 in North America. 234 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:33,240 And so Dallas seemed to be central. 235 00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:35,600 It seemed to be an easy place. 236 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:37,920 There's kind of two major airports there. 237 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,760 There's Dallas-Fort Worth and there's Love Field. 238 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:42,600 And so that's what we went with. 239 00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:46,680 And then there was connections that we had from the podcast. 240 00:13:46,680 --> 00:13:50,520 Like we'd interviewed people that had started other conferences and other niches. 241 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:52,320 And we had conversations with those folks. 242 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:55,120 We had a rapport with them, a friendship with them where we could say, hey, if you were 243 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:58,720 to start all over, knowing what you know now, what would you do? 244 00:13:58,720 --> 00:13:59,720 What would you avoid? 245 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:04,800 So we got some really good advice for people that were just very generous and gracious 246 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:05,800 with their time. 247 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:07,420 They didn't charge us consulting fees. 248 00:14:07,420 --> 00:14:12,840 They were just friendly to us, which I look back now and I realized, man, that was a gift. 249 00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:16,480 And we've certainly tried to pay that forward over the years. 250 00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:21,040 But it is interesting now that there were several years down the road and there are 251 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:24,280 a number of podcast conferences now. 252 00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:28,120 And it's funny because all the people that have gone off and started these podcast conferences 253 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:31,960 are people that have come to Podcast Movement. 254 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:32,960 We just got to laugh at that. 255 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:34,960 They're like, hey, I could do this. 256 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:37,160 And then they go off and do their own version of it. 257 00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:42,680 So it's just creating more podcast conference opportunities, which isn't necessarily a bad 258 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:43,680 thing. 259 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:49,040 But Podcast Movement was the first one really to be inserted in that spot. 260 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:55,520 And so I don't necessarily look at these other events as bad or competition or anything like 261 00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:56,520 that. 262 00:14:56,520 --> 00:14:58,120 We're pretty established at this point. 263 00:14:58,120 --> 00:15:04,400 But it is fun to see how Podcast Movement has added impact, not just in podcasting, 264 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:07,900 but also in events for podcasting as well. 265 00:15:07,900 --> 00:15:11,760 So yeah, a lot's happened. 266 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:12,760 It's truly become a movement. 267 00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:16,000 Is that why you chose the podcast? 268 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:17,520 Some say that, some don't. 269 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:21,280 Yeah, well, the name movement, I've always loved that name. 270 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:24,480 I remember in high school, there was a band. 271 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:25,480 I grew up in Alabama. 272 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:26,600 I grew up in the South. 273 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:28,600 And there was a band called Far South Movement. 274 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:30,480 I always thought that was a cool name. 275 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:34,600 And then when talking to Dan about names for the event, there were so many names that were 276 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:35,600 just played out. 277 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:36,960 And we're like, we don't like that. 278 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:38,760 That's cheesy. 279 00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:42,880 And we both, this is an interesting fact, not many people know about us, but Dan and 280 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:45,440 I both grew up wrestling fans. 281 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:50,000 And Dan was actually once a professional wrestler, by the way. 282 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:52,020 And we loved wrestling. 283 00:15:52,020 --> 00:15:57,400 And at the time, there's a wrestler named Daniel Bryant, who was doing this yes chant. 284 00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:01,600 And he would get in the ring and he would just raise his hands and the crowd would just 285 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:02,600 go crazy. 286 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:04,160 They'd say, yes, yes, yes. 287 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:09,200 And I guess WWE coined that, the yes movement. 288 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:12,600 And we were having a conversation one day and we started talking about that. 289 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:15,840 And then there was like, hey, we should call it podcast movement. 290 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:17,960 And we're like, yeah, that's it. 291 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:19,120 That's the name. 292 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,000 So with that, I wish there was a better story of how we came up with it, but that's how 293 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:23,000 we came up with it. 294 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:25,000 So I actually love that story, though. 295 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:26,600 That's the idea. 296 00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:31,880 Nobody was using that name in the marketing business space prior. 297 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:35,280 And it is amazing how since then you see all these different names that popped up that 298 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:38,160 are movement, movement, movements, like, oh, okay. 299 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:42,120 I'm not saying they got that from us, but it is interesting that there was that wasn't 300 00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:43,120 out there before. 301 00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:44,120 We were like the only ones. 302 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:45,760 And now you see a lot more. 303 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:50,120 Well, I mean, when people see something's actually working, why not go for it? 304 00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:51,120 Right now. 305 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:52,120 Oh, yeah. 306 00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:54,640 We've copied some stuff, believe me. 307 00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:56,720 But always put your own spin on it, of course. 308 00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:57,720 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 309 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:02,480 Yeah, that's the key from just blatantly stealing and then attempting to be creative. 310 00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:03,480 Okay. 311 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:07,280 You see something that's fun and that's memorable at one event. 312 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:12,440 And you're like, hey, let's try to maybe create our own rendition of that. 313 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:16,600 And yeah, that really is one of the big ways the event has evolved over the years. 314 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:19,200 Another one is getting feedback from people right after the event. 315 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:22,080 We put out surveys and people share their ideas. 316 00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:28,480 And then you take them in and kind of filter the ones that are not helpful and the ones 317 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:29,480 that are. 318 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:33,840 And then you kind of come up with new strategies for the next event. 319 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:37,800 And that's served us well because there are things that people mention or like, hey, I 320 00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:38,800 didn't think of that. 321 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:39,800 That's a good one. 322 00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:43,800 So, yeah, I like that you asked for the feedback. 323 00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:48,760 The fact that you actually genuinely care what your attendees say, that really speaks 324 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:52,320 to the fact that you guys aren't just in it. 325 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:56,400 I mean, obviously, if you were waiting four years before you actually took on some money, 326 00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:58,560 clearly it wasn't the money that was important to you. 327 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:02,480 It was the fact that you actually wanted to provide a service that was of value. 328 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:06,720 And so just the fact that you guys keep showing that you genuinely care. 329 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:12,360 I mean, you guys actually answer emails, you respond to tweets, you have an amazing Facebook 330 00:18:12,360 --> 00:18:13,360 community. 331 00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:14,360 Oh, my God. 332 00:18:14,360 --> 00:18:17,040 I mean, Grinchy, there are some things that you can tell that people are only joining 333 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:19,520 the group because they're trying to promote themselves. 334 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:22,320 Yeah, we try to filter that, but it's hard. 335 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:30,520 Yeah, but just like the fact that you guys put community above all, it becomes paramount. 336 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:31,580 It actually shows. 337 00:18:31,580 --> 00:18:35,320 And it's one of the reasons that it's one of my favorite conferences I've ever attended. 338 00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:38,240 And I want to attend every single one that I possibly can. 339 00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:39,240 Now I'm curious, though. 340 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:40,240 Can I stop you for a second? 341 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:41,240 I'm sorry. 342 00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:42,240 Absolutely. 343 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:44,720 You just said something that I think this is really important. 344 00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:48,140 I want people to get this. 345 00:18:48,140 --> 00:18:50,180 You said that you're talking about community. 346 00:18:50,180 --> 00:18:53,160 And that was a big conversation that we had in the beginning was community. 347 00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:54,840 How do you really create community? 348 00:18:54,840 --> 00:19:03,720 And we had seen a lot of examples in conferences and different things where people were only 349 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:09,880 promoting their own interest or their own ego or their own brand. 350 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:16,200 And we determined, and I don't say this to brag or to pretend like we're better than 351 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:19,160 anyone else because we certainly don't feel that way. 352 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:26,840 But we decided that, hey, we're not going to be the guys that post our face all over 353 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:33,240 the banners, all over the ads, all over the podcast movement logos. 354 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:40,440 And we're not going to be the guys that take the keynote stage and take up that valuable 355 00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:45,600 time slot just for our own ego. 356 00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:50,480 We're going to let the community be the stars. 357 00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:53,560 And that's a decision that I have never regretted. 358 00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:57,840 I think that has been such a good move for a number of reasons. 359 00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:02,920 I think people came in and they saw all these other events where there's a face. 360 00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:07,600 And I'm not knocking that, but we realized, hey, that's not going to be best for what 361 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:09,060 we want to accomplish. 362 00:20:09,060 --> 00:20:11,520 And what it has accomplished, I think, is a lot of goodwill. 363 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:15,540 I think there's a lot of trust that was developed because people said, here's these guys that 364 00:20:15,540 --> 00:20:19,280 are running this, but they're not trying to promote themselves. 365 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:23,160 Maybe they really are trying to promote genuine community. 366 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:26,920 And because of that, I think that's one of the things that has helped podcast movement 367 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:32,040 to grow and to become what it has is a trust. 368 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:35,280 People just knew, okay, this isn't an event where somebody's just trying to say, look 369 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:36,600 at me, look at me. 370 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:41,440 This is an event where it really is about the community and it's run by people that 371 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:43,720 actually care for the community. 372 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:46,920 And so I'm really thankful that we made that choice and I'm glad that we've stuck with 373 00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:47,920 that over the years. 374 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:49,720 And I know that has served us well. 375 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:54,240 And it's actually created the result that some people would want from the beginning. 376 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:55,240 Hey, I want to be noticed. 377 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:56,240 I want to be seen. 378 00:20:56,240 --> 00:21:00,000 I want to look like I have this big following or whatever. 379 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,200 That is never our intent or goal. 380 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:07,480 But it is when you start to have something that works and is taking off and is doing 381 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:10,040 well and flourishing, people will ask that question. 382 00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:11,120 Well, who's behind this? 383 00:21:11,120 --> 00:21:12,400 Who's doing this? 384 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:13,400 And they ask that question. 385 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:16,920 And then your name does come up right or wrong. 386 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:20,720 People find out about who you are or what you're doing, even though you're not necessarily 387 00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:23,760 trying to say, please, please, please notice me. 388 00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:26,160 Does that make sense? 389 00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:27,160 It actually does. 390 00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:28,160 It makes complete sense. 391 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:29,160 Yeah. 392 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:32,400 That's my encouragement to people listening to this today who are wanting community or 393 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:40,080 wanting to create community is if you can do it in a way that isn't so focused on yourself 394 00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:44,560 and really makes other people the hero, I think that just is genuine. 395 00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:46,040 I think people really resonate with that. 396 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:49,120 I don't think there's a wrong way to do it, but I think that has been something that we've 397 00:21:49,120 --> 00:21:50,120 done that's worked well. 398 00:21:50,120 --> 00:21:55,480 It's definitely what drew me to podcast movement because I remember back when I was first researching 399 00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:59,440 about how to start a podcast and I was looking into a lot of things. 400 00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:00,440 I came across you. 401 00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:02,480 I don't remember how I came across you. 402 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:07,920 But I don't remember how I came across you. 403 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:11,840 But I was like, well, does he actually work with the company? 404 00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:12,840 What does he do with the company? 405 00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:16,280 And I was trying to ask you and you're like, oh, yeah, I work with the company. 406 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:18,480 And it's like, no, you co-founded it. 407 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:19,480 Come on. 408 00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:27,280 And the way that you and Dan were so humble about it and so not look at me, look at me, 409 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:29,720 it made me love the community that much more. 410 00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:33,520 So it definitely everything that you just said, spot on. 411 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:38,200 I love the fact that you guys didn't make it an ego thing where, oh, we're just going 412 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:40,280 to get on the stage and we're going to be the stars. 413 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:44,000 I love the fact that you make the podcasters of your community the star. 414 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:47,640 Although let's be honest, you guys could be the stars as well. 415 00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:54,040 Well, whether that's true or not, I think we've earned a lot of trust because we haven't 416 00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:55,760 taken that path. 417 00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:58,560 And I wouldn't do it any other way now. 418 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:03,920 I really believe that was the right call and any relationships that have been gained from 419 00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:10,760 it, I think have been gained for a good foundation, a good reason. 420 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:15,700 People just say, okay, I believe that this person's not trying to be sneaky and trying 421 00:23:15,700 --> 00:23:21,440 to just sell me something for their own business or vanity or whatever. 422 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:28,800 I really think there's just a trust that people will develop because of that. 423 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:33,800 We've heard it from a lot of people and the events kind of speak for themselves. 424 00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:37,800 If you attend one, you'll see, I mean, the community is really awesome and generous and 425 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:39,840 collaborative, synergistic mindset. 426 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:44,960 You got a few people that may not be that way, but for the most part, that's how it 427 00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:45,960 is. 428 00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:51,960 But that's kind of the culture we were hoping to foster and it kind of just has grown, not 429 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:56,800 because we're great people, but just because we threw the party and tried to make sure 430 00:23:56,800 --> 00:23:58,560 those were the guests that were coming. 431 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:05,360 Well, speaking of the events, the events themselves, when was it that you started having evolutions 432 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:10,200 and why did it go from just podcast movement, the conference to podcast movement, now having 433 00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:11,200 two separate events? 434 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:12,200 That's a good one. 435 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:13,200 There was a few reasons. 436 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:18,800 One, trying to expand a little bit, but within reason. 437 00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,320 So from a business standpoint, it makes sense if you can do another event that's good for 438 00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:23,320 business. 439 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:28,320 But another reason was at the time, a lot of our events, the major events, the podcast 440 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:31,680 movement events were more central or east coast. 441 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:34,360 And we'd only done one podcast movement on the west coast. 442 00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:36,400 That was in Anaheim. 443 00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:41,080 And there's a number of amazing podcasters that are in California and on the west coast. 444 00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:46,160 And they're not always able to or willing, especially when COVID wasn't a thing, to be 445 00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:47,640 able to travel to the east coast. 446 00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:53,520 And we thought, well, it's going to make sense to try to do something that's in California 447 00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:57,500 that allows west coast folks, if they want to, to have something a little bit closer 448 00:24:57,500 --> 00:24:58,500 to them. 449 00:24:58,500 --> 00:25:03,280 And then there's a lot of industry podcast people in the LA area. 450 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:09,440 And we wanted to have some more content and some more opportunities for those folks. 451 00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:12,960 And so Evolutions was developed with all that in mind. 452 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:15,200 And so now it's a smaller event. 453 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:20,400 It's not as large as the big one in the summertime, but it's still a pretty good size event. 454 00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:25,920 We've only done one, but I believe we had like over 2000 at that first one. 455 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,560 And I'm not sure what we'll end up having at this one, but we're getting registrations 456 00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:31,320 and people are excited about coming. 457 00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:36,920 They're coming from other countries even, despite what's going on in the world right 458 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:37,920 now. 459 00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:42,480 So we're proud about that and we'll have a number of safety protocols in place and just 460 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:49,040 make sure we're sticking to the rules as much as possible and we'll create a really exciting 461 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:50,040 event. 462 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:55,600 But we were able to do the Nashville event this past summer and despite of the pandemic 463 00:25:55,600 --> 00:26:00,480 and things, and it was well attended and it was great and we had a blast. 464 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:02,800 So we're just going to keep doing it as long as we can. 465 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,800 And we're having fun doing it. 466 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,240 It's a blast. 467 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:12,320 Anyone that comes to the event, you've been yourself, you come away just encouraged. 468 00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:18,680 And even if you don't podcast, you'll be like, I should start a podcast or you'll be like, 469 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:20,640 hey, I got asked to be on podcast. 470 00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,320 I've had a friend who came that wasn't a podcaster. 471 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,520 They just wanted to see what the event was like. 472 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:29,960 I think they left the event getting asked to be on a couple of podcasts, which would 473 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:33,920 be like a guest on a podcast, which I thought was pretty cool. 474 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,760 So it's just a really generous community. 475 00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:37,760 It's a fun time. 476 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:39,520 Yeah, it is a very generous community. 477 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:44,360 And whenever I attended my first one in 2019, I didn't have a podcast, but I was hell bent 478 00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:45,360 on starting one. 479 00:26:45,360 --> 00:26:48,640 As soon as I left that event, I was so ready to start. 480 00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:50,400 And then I did actually launch it. 481 00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:54,300 I launched it in the middle of the pandemic on April Fool's Day. 482 00:26:54,300 --> 00:26:57,920 And I did that so that if it was awful, I could say it was a joke. 483 00:26:57,920 --> 00:26:59,880 That's a true story. 484 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:02,080 Well, I'm glad it didn't stop. 485 00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:04,080 Yeah, I'm loving it. 486 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:05,240 I'm absolutely loving it. 487 00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:09,960 Now, since you do have two events and you kind of made it sound like the Evolutions 488 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:13,680 is more for industry pros, who should attend your podcast? 489 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:14,680 Not necessarily. 490 00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:15,680 Then speak to that. 491 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:18,120 Let's jam on that for a minute. 492 00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:22,680 I think the events themselves are for anyone that podcasts or anyone that's in the industry. 493 00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:24,560 And that's regardless of which one you go to. 494 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:31,920 I do think there is some more content focused toward the industry stuff and the Evolutions. 495 00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:38,360 That said, we kind of differentiated the two events where podcast movement is kind of choose 496 00:27:38,360 --> 00:27:39,360 your own adventure. 497 00:27:39,360 --> 00:27:45,360 It's a number of tracks that are on a number of topics. 498 00:27:45,360 --> 00:27:48,600 And you can kind of say, okay, this particular session, I want to go and learn something 499 00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:49,600 about marketing. 500 00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:52,600 And this next session, I want to learn something about monetization. 501 00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:55,360 And, you know, there's just all these different categories. 502 00:27:55,360 --> 00:28:02,040 And then the Evolutions event is actually you buy a ticket based on your experience 503 00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:03,040 level. 504 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:07,600 So if you're a new podcast or there's a new content, a new podcast or ticket where all 505 00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:14,200 of the sessions in that ticket are specific to where you are in podcasting for that moment. 506 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:17,480 And then there's an industry pass, people that are more the industry folks. 507 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:19,280 And then there's a professional podcast. 508 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,200 There's people that are, you know, they're not the rookies. 509 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:23,320 They're the veterans. 510 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:25,280 So it's content more tailored for those people. 511 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:28,680 So that's one of the ways we've differentiated the events. 512 00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:34,000 And you know, and I'm sure we'll continue to adjust and evolve, but that's the way it 513 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:35,080 is set up right now. 514 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:41,320 But anybody that's interested in podcasting, interested or has a podcast or their business 515 00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:45,800 is thinking about starting a podcast or I mean, it's a little bit of everybody. 516 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:51,840 So it's the hobbyist, it's the veteran, it's the person that works in the industry space. 517 00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:53,480 It's people that are just intrigued. 518 00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:57,720 We've had people that show up and they're not podcasters at all. 519 00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:00,640 And then they are authors of a book or something like that. 520 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:05,420 And they're like, I'm just here because I want to meet podcasters, I want to be on podcasts. 521 00:29:05,420 --> 00:29:08,140 So we've had people attend the event for that. 522 00:29:08,140 --> 00:29:12,440 And that's worked way better than any PR agency that they've hired. 523 00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:17,800 They've walked away with like dozens of interviews just for paying for a ticket to go to the 524 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:18,800 event. 525 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:21,880 They just met people and told them what they're up to. 526 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,200 And then, hey, I'd love to have you on my show. 527 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:25,800 So much of that. 528 00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:26,800 It really is. 529 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,160 The networking is really, really great. 530 00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:33,800 And it's not the same old person. 531 00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:34,800 Everybody's different. 532 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:38,440 Everybody's got a different story and a different background and a different... 533 00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:41,880 There are people from everywhere and it's beautiful. 534 00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:42,880 It's really cool. 535 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,840 It's diverse and in a very wonderful way. 536 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:54,840 I've not been to many things where you would see these people that culturally may not get 537 00:29:54,840 --> 00:30:00,840 along all of a sudden be excited to talk to each other about something like podcasting. 538 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:02,640 Podcasting does that though. 539 00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:09,000 The person who's Jewish will be hanging out with the Arabic person or whatever. 540 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:10,000 It's like... 541 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:13,880 Not that that's not completely normal, but you know what I mean? 542 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,320 These are just examples of people that might... 543 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:24,320 Someone who's a Christian might be talking with the person who's LGBTQ that is really 544 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:26,440 not grown up in the Bible will and all that. 545 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:31,000 You've got these just different types of people that are interacting and it's not a political 546 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:32,000 thing. 547 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:33,000 It's not a... 548 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:40,400 How do I want up you or how do I try to conform you to my mindset? 549 00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:41,400 It's nothing like that. 550 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:45,320 People are just excited about learning about podcasting and sharing what they're doing. 551 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:50,600 For the most part, you walk away from the event and it's really energized and encouraged 552 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:55,880 and almost like, hey, humanity is not completely terrible. 553 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,440 There's some really gracious and good people out there and from all different types of 554 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:00,440 backgrounds. 555 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:01,440 I love that about podcasting. 556 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:02,440 Oh, absolutely. 557 00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:07,720 I think one of the big reasons that so many different niches and cultures and all of that 558 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:10,560 can come together is we all want to be heard. 559 00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:13,200 We all want our message to be heard. 560 00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:15,280 The fact that podcasting... 561 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,960 You said at the beginning of our interview that it was very democratized. 562 00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:26,560 I think that's so true that what makes it such a movement is that anybody from any background 563 00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:30,280 can just get on their microphone and share a message. 564 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:34,800 One of the things you also said at the beginning of our chat was that it's interesting to see 565 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:37,360 people collaborating from all these different niches. 566 00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:43,120 I think it's because at the heart of it, we're all seeing that even if we are having different 567 00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:47,060 interests or different businesses or different whatever, there is something we do have in 568 00:31:47,060 --> 00:31:53,200 common and there is something that we can share that gives someone our story. 569 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:54,200 I think it's beautiful. 570 00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:55,200 I'm with you 100%. 571 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:56,200 Yeah, it's very exciting. 572 00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:57,200 It's our Miss America moment. 573 00:31:57,200 --> 00:31:58,200 It's our Miss America moment. 574 00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:05,520 One of the things you said that also struck me was that you have non-podcasters coming 575 00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:08,480 to try to get podcast guesting opportunities. 576 00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:14,520 I think it's really interesting because they're saying the industry experts, if you will, 577 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:18,960 everybody's saying that podcast guesting is the new guest blogging. 578 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:22,680 It's what you got to do because like you said, why would you want to spend all this money 579 00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:25,720 on a PR agency when you can just get on a bunch of podcasts? 580 00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:30,800 Well, I'm not saying people shouldn't support PR agencies. 581 00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:32,340 I've seen it firsthand. 582 00:32:32,340 --> 00:32:37,480 People that have come to the event and purposely wanted to interact with podcasters and potentially 583 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:43,560 get on shows and they've walked away with just dozens, literally dozens of podcasts 584 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:46,360 that are now scheduled for the next few months. 585 00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:51,480 They'd be like, man, this is the best investment I've ever made. 586 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:52,480 It really is. 587 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:53,480 It's wild. 588 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:54,480 Yeah. 589 00:32:54,480 --> 00:33:01,800 There was a lady, I won't name her. 590 00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:08,360 She had talked about how coming to our event the next year, she could point back to our 591 00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:13,960 event and show how it made her like probably $250,000 in revenue and in her business. 592 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:18,440 It's not a business conference, but people that have businesses because of the networking 593 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:20,440 and the different opportunities that come. 594 00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:24,720 She ended up being on a number of shows that promoted her and then she ended up seeing 595 00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:29,240 a lot of growth in her business and she attributed that because of the connections she made at 596 00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:30,240 the event. 597 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:31,880 That's not going to happen for everybody. 598 00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:36,800 I'm sure everybody's different and everybody's work ethic is different. 599 00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:41,720 Just hearing stories like that is like, that's pretty amazing. 600 00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:48,840 I would have never anticipated that's something that would be happening from podcast movements. 601 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:54,240 People connecting with someone that they looked up to and then being a guest on their show, 602 00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:55,440 we have stories like that. 603 00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:58,640 One of my favorite stories, this is good. 604 00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:00,920 There's a lady who does birdwatching. 605 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:05,000 She does a podcast about birdwatching and she's reputable in that space. 606 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,680 I'd ask her at one of our events, which session was beneficial to you? 607 00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:13,240 I just assumed she'd mentioned a keynote or just something that was obvious. 608 00:34:13,240 --> 00:34:15,840 She's like, oh, that's easy, the wrestling guys. 609 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:20,240 I kind of laughed for a minute thinking, here's a birdwatcher lady going to a session that 610 00:34:20,240 --> 00:34:24,200 guys, the wrestling podcasts are teaching. 611 00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:27,160 That made me laugh. 612 00:34:27,160 --> 00:34:31,200 She's like, oh yeah, I love the way they engage with their audience. 613 00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:38,360 I love the way they come up with monetization opportunities and live podcasts and Patreon 614 00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:41,080 support and she's rattled off this list. 615 00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:44,720 She's like, I'm going to try to borrow a bunch of the things that they're doing to apply 616 00:34:44,720 --> 00:34:46,800 to what I'm doing in the birdwatching space. 617 00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:50,400 That's what I was talking about, where these different circles overlap and they learn from 618 00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:53,000 each other. 619 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:58,280 That to me is hysterical, but it's just a good example of something that maybe you wouldn't 620 00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:00,360 expect that happens. 621 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:06,240 I got to tell one more and it's wrestling related, so it's still kind of in context. 622 00:35:06,240 --> 00:35:11,800 I met this guy named Scotty and Scotty, this was actually a couple of years ago. 623 00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:14,640 People are at a podcast conference, if they don't have a podcast, they're talking about 624 00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,480 what they're thinking about doing as a potential podcast. 625 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:20,800 That's Scotty, that's where he was at at that time. 626 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:24,820 He was telling me, I'm going to start a podcast where I'm going to make up this fake wrestling 627 00:35:24,820 --> 00:35:28,680 organization in my head and then I'm just going to, each episode, I'm going to talk 628 00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:34,520 about the storylines of these fake wrestlers and then I'm going to use this video game 629 00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:40,080 simulation of creating these custom wrestlers and then have them simulate wrestling each 630 00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:43,760 other and that's how I'm going to figure out the matches and who wins. 631 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,080 I remember him telling me all this stuff. 632 00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:48,640 I was just like, that's a lot. 633 00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:51,760 I was like, that's good for you buddy. 634 00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:52,760 Good luck with that. 635 00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:56,760 And thinking in my head, that may or may not work. 636 00:35:56,760 --> 00:36:01,920 Well, I ran into him this last year and I was like, Scotty, how you doing? 637 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:02,920 I was a wrestling podcast. 638 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:03,920 He's like, man, you wouldn't believe it. 639 00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:04,920 I've quit my day job. 640 00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:06,200 I'm doing it full time now. 641 00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:08,200 I was like, wait a minute. 642 00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:14,760 The wrestling one, the made up one, the video game simulations, he's like, yeah, man, I've 643 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:18,400 been doing it for a couple of years and I got enough people supporting me now on Patreon 644 00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:20,360 and I've quit my day job. 645 00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:24,240 I'm doing this full time. 646 00:36:24,240 --> 00:36:25,240 I just cracked up. 647 00:36:25,240 --> 00:36:33,720 I was like, I would have never ever given this guy the chance of being a full time professional 648 00:36:33,720 --> 00:36:38,120 podcaster based on that idea, but it worked. 649 00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:39,120 He was creative. 650 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:41,480 He figured it out. 651 00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:47,960 And I know that won't be true for everybody, but man, if you can do that. 652 00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:49,720 I think the sky's the limit. 653 00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:50,720 So I love that story. 654 00:36:50,720 --> 00:36:51,720 It's one of my favorites. 655 00:36:51,720 --> 00:36:54,600 There's several others, but I'll stop there. 656 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:55,720 That is fantastic. 657 00:36:55,720 --> 00:36:57,880 I like to hear things like that too, because... 658 00:36:57,880 --> 00:36:58,880 The random, right? 659 00:36:58,880 --> 00:36:59,880 Yes. 660 00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:01,960 And the randomness is what I love about it though. 661 00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:06,640 Because I mean, I've seen podcasts on every subject, but that, I mean, like you said, 662 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:07,640 the sky's the limit. 663 00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:08,640 That's fantastic. 664 00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:15,080 So I have to ask you though, and you may not even want to speak to this, but I'm just curious. 665 00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:18,360 What do you see as the future of podcasting? 666 00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,240 Well, I mean, let's just be realistic. 667 00:37:21,240 --> 00:37:26,520 I think you're going to see more of the bigger fish get involved, bigger organizations, bigger 668 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:27,520 celebrities. 669 00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:31,200 That's, I think it'll be a trend. 670 00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:34,160 I don't see it as a bad thing. 671 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:36,880 Those people are going to probably get more attention just because they already have attention 672 00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:40,780 because they already have massive platforms and things like that. 673 00:37:40,780 --> 00:37:45,880 But for the people who are creative, for the people who are niche and the people who are 674 00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:50,360 willing to take this seriously and run with it, I still think those people have as good 675 00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:52,320 a chance as anyone. 676 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:57,080 So podcasting will continue to see new opportunities in technology. 677 00:37:57,080 --> 00:38:02,200 We'll see new innovations, new opportunities to engage with audiences live. 678 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:07,120 Live streaming will be even more relevant than it is now. 679 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:13,640 I see a number of ways that podcasting can continue to develop and I think that it will. 680 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:19,360 The haves will continue to have and the have nots may continue to kind of linger a little 681 00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:20,360 bit. 682 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:25,240 But for those that are niche and those that are focused and really creative, I think the 683 00:38:25,240 --> 00:38:26,240 sky's the limit. 684 00:38:26,240 --> 00:38:28,200 The opportunity is absolutely there. 685 00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:29,760 It can happen. 686 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,640 It's not too late to start a podcast. 687 00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:34,000 The wagon hasn't left. 688 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:35,140 The train hasn't left. 689 00:38:35,140 --> 00:38:37,960 You can still start a podcast and still have success. 690 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,120 It takes work and it takes creativity. 691 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:47,140 And I do think being in a very specific ditch is a good thing that will likely help you. 692 00:38:47,140 --> 00:38:48,920 So I think that's the future. 693 00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:55,720 I think we'll just see more opportunities for these big fish and then we'll see people 694 00:38:55,720 --> 00:39:01,520 continue to step up and be creative and have fun ways to do shows and new ideas and innovative 695 00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:03,920 ways of presenting themselves. 696 00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:06,280 And then they'll get on the radar too. 697 00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:09,860 So I think it's open, wide open. 698 00:39:09,860 --> 00:39:10,860 Anybody can do it. 699 00:39:10,860 --> 00:39:11,860 So why not? 700 00:39:11,860 --> 00:39:14,000 And you don't need a massive audience depending on what your goals are. 701 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:18,480 If you're just trying to help key people, you just start sharing what's on your mind 702 00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:22,160 and what's on your heart and you'd be surprised. 703 00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:23,960 I've gotten emails from my podcast. 704 00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:25,680 My podcast is not a professional podcast. 705 00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:28,760 It's one I do for fun that I've been doing for several years. 706 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:32,160 And I've gotten emails from people in other countries. 707 00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:36,000 Like a guy was telling me I was on a, you know, they were on an eight hour road trip 708 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:37,000 listening to my podcast. 709 00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,000 And I kind of chuckled at that. 710 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:43,160 I was like, sometimes my wife won't even listen to me for eight minutes. 711 00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:47,400 I was like, how did you listen to my podcast for eight hours? 712 00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:48,760 But you know, those things happen. 713 00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:53,520 So I encourage people that are on the fence or thinking about it, you know, it's really 714 00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:57,680 not that brutal to start a podcast and there's plenty of tutorials that are free out there. 715 00:39:57,680 --> 00:39:59,580 You don't even need to spend a lot of money on equipment. 716 00:39:59,580 --> 00:40:03,680 You can almost do everything from a mobile device if that's what you want. 717 00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:06,760 And if you've got something on your mind or something on your heart that you want to talk 718 00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:09,240 about, something that you love, you're passionate about, give it a try. 719 00:40:09,240 --> 00:40:10,640 You know, you don't have anything to lose. 720 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:12,280 Go ahead and test it out. 721 00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:16,480 I'd say if you are going to test it out, maybe consider the Netflix seasonal approach. 722 00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:18,920 Maybe just say, I'm going to do eight episodes or I'm going to do 10 episodes. 723 00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:21,680 And then I'm just going to kind of evaluate and we'll see what people say. 724 00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:25,600 You see what kind of feedback I get and then test it that way. 725 00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:29,920 And then say, hey, I'm going to just do this ongoing show for forever because that can 726 00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:30,920 burn you out. 727 00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:34,160 So I'd say maybe just start with a few episodes and then try to get some feedback. 728 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:39,080 And then if you decide to do some more episodes, you'll have an idea of what you need to change 729 00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:41,320 and what you need to adjust. 730 00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,600 Or you may realize, hey, okay, that topic is not the one I want to keep doing. 731 00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:46,160 And so you can change it up. 732 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,200 You can say April Fools, right? 733 00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:49,200 Exactly. 734 00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:50,200 Exactly. 735 00:40:50,200 --> 00:40:52,560 And then that's exactly how I started is I committed to 10. 736 00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:53,560 I committed to 10. 737 00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:55,360 Yeah, I like that idea. 738 00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:56,360 So, all right. 739 00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:57,880 So I got to ask you one last question. 740 00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:02,080 I ask everybody before I let them go, what is one question I didn't ask you really wish 741 00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:05,080 I had? 742 00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:09,560 Oh, my God. 743 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:12,760 And by the way, you can blame it on me for not being more. 744 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:13,760 Okay. 745 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:17,800 So what's the question that you didn't ask that you should have? 746 00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:22,320 Man, there's so many questions that you could have asked that you didn't. 747 00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:25,240 I love random things. 748 00:41:25,240 --> 00:41:30,760 I love like right now I'm passionate about being a referee. 749 00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:37,160 I did referee for American football for high school and middle school this past fall for 750 00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:38,160 the first time ever. 751 00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:39,160 And I loved it. 752 00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:40,160 It was so much fun. 753 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:44,000 It was something that was way out of my comfort zone. 754 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:45,000 But I got involved. 755 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:46,000 I started doing it. 756 00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:47,000 I loved it. 757 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:52,360 So I'm always kind of looking for random things to kind of to mess with and have fun with. 758 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:53,360 That's one of them. 759 00:41:53,360 --> 00:42:00,160 The other one is I help out and volunteer at the animal care shelter here locally and 760 00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:05,080 just walk the dogs, you know, the old dogs that nobody wants to take home. 761 00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:08,040 So I go and hang out with old dogs and walk them. 762 00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:09,680 So I do that. 763 00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:10,680 That's fun. 764 00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:14,200 Yeah, just into random little things. 765 00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:15,200 Vending interests me right now. 766 00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:16,200 I'm into vending machines. 767 00:42:16,200 --> 00:42:17,200 I'm fascinated. 768 00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:19,800 I actually own a couple of vending machines. 769 00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:20,800 Oh, my goodness. 770 00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:23,600 I can't believe how many different vending machines there are. 771 00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:26,680 Yeah, I bought a couple of vending machines and so I've been playing with those just for 772 00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:32,960 fun and an idea that I thought, hey, I want to teach my daughter some business principles. 773 00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:33,960 She's young. 774 00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:35,960 She's 11 and candy and soda. 775 00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:38,480 Yeah, yeah, it's just snacks and soda. 776 00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:41,120 I saw one in an airport the other day. 777 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:43,400 They were selling iPhones in a vending machine. 778 00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:46,040 I'm like, what's now? 779 00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:47,520 That's a vending machine I should get. 780 00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:56,720 I saw one on Instagram, maybe in Japan, where they sell like cake in a can and you drop 781 00:42:56,720 --> 00:42:57,720 the can down. 782 00:42:57,720 --> 00:43:01,120 It's got a plastic spay and you peel the top off and you're eating cake out of a can. 783 00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:06,080 Oh, yeah, they have a whole street dedicated to vending machines. 784 00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:07,080 There's a YouTube video on it. 785 00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:08,080 I should send it to you. 786 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:09,080 Oh, I love it. 787 00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:10,480 Anyway, yeah, so vending interests me. 788 00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:11,920 There's so many things that interest me. 789 00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:18,280 So I love really interesting shows on Netflix and streaming channels apps. 790 00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:23,520 So if you ever find that show that you just love, tweet me or message me and tell me because 791 00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:24,520 I'm always looking for good. 792 00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:28,280 Well, speaking of tweeting, where can we find you online? 793 00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:29,960 Jared Easley is my personal Twitter. 794 00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:33,160 Of course, if you're wanting podcast movement stuff, that's at podcast movement. 795 00:43:33,160 --> 00:43:38,240 And that is a much more active channel than my Twitter, my personal Twitter. 796 00:43:38,240 --> 00:43:40,880 But yeah, you can always reach out to me. 797 00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:47,240 I'm jared.com via email or we can connect on Twitter, Instagram, any of those places. 798 00:43:47,240 --> 00:43:49,440 So yeah, I would be linked in to LinkedIn. 799 00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:52,840 But if you're lucky enough to be a Facebook friend, you'll get to see some of Jared's 800 00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:53,840 dad. 801 00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:54,840 And I might be on Facebook. 802 00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:58,920 I'm a little more picky with who I'm friends with on Facebook. 803 00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:01,360 And I think it's because I tell really bad dad jokes. 804 00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:02,840 I love your dad jokes. 805 00:44:02,840 --> 00:44:03,840 They are something that can. 806 00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:06,440 Yeah, there are some that can, you know, process them. 807 00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:08,800 And then there's I sent my brother an email. 808 00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:09,800 This is true story. 809 00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:13,360 I sent him an email this past week with a bunch of probably like 12 really terrible 810 00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:18,360 bad jokes, dad jokes, not not bad, but just dad cheesy jokes. 811 00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:19,360 And he wrote me back. 812 00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:22,680 And he was just like, man, like, don't ever do that again. 813 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:24,760 I was just cracking up. 814 00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:29,360 I'm laughing more at his response than anything. 815 00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:34,480 But yeah, my friend, unfortunately, John Key is no longer with us. 816 00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:36,320 But John was a guest on my show a long time ago. 817 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:41,760 And John said to me one time, he said, tell bad jokes. 818 00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:44,160 And I was like, why are there bad jokes? 819 00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:47,200 And he's like, people laugh at bad jokes. 820 00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:48,640 They say they hate them. 821 00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:52,160 They make Rome, but really deep down, people appreciate bad jokes. 822 00:44:52,160 --> 00:44:56,240 So every now and then, there's a lot of challenges in this life. 823 00:44:56,240 --> 00:44:58,600 There's the pandemic. 824 00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:01,920 There's political challenges. 825 00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:06,640 There's all these differences of perspective and opinion. 826 00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:13,040 And it's so nice sometimes to just go on a social media channel and read a bad joke, 827 00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:14,040 read a dad joke. 828 00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:18,320 So that's, I think the goal there is just try to make somebody laugh and kind of forget 829 00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:22,320 about all the craziness for a moment and move on. 830 00:45:22,320 --> 00:45:25,120 Well this was definitely an interesting interview. 831 00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:26,680 I kind of saw it going one way. 832 00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:30,360 I didn't know we were going to end the way we did, but I have loved everything. 833 00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:35,160 I feel like we should just start over now. 834 00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:36,160 But bless your heart. 835 00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:37,160 Yeah. 836 00:45:37,160 --> 00:45:38,160 That's what they say in Kentucky. 837 00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:39,160 Bless your heart. 838 00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:40,160 Yeah. 839 00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:41,160 In a good way. 840 00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:42,160 In a good way. 841 00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:43,160 Yes. 842 00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:46,280 Well, I just, I want to thank you again so much for your time and for all of the awesome 843 00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:47,680 stories that you shared. 844 00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:51,880 I mean, everything you shared was just, it kind of lights me up and makes me very excited 845 00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:52,880 for podcast movement. 846 00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:56,680 I will be attending virtually, but we do have the team members from RSS that will be there 847 00:45:56,680 --> 00:45:57,680 live. 848 00:45:57,680 --> 00:45:58,680 So we're excited about that. 849 00:45:58,680 --> 00:45:59,680 Well, I look forward to meeting you then. 850 00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:00,680 Thank you for your time. 851 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:01,680 Absolutely. 852 00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:05,240 I'm grateful and I hope people will continue to check out the show. 853 00:46:05,240 --> 00:46:06,240 Yes. 854 00:46:06,240 --> 00:46:07,240 And I hope people will continue podcasting. 855 00:46:07,240 --> 00:46:08,240 What are you waiting for? 856 00:46:08,240 --> 00:46:09,240 Yes. 857 00:46:09,240 --> 00:46:10,240 As I'll share. 858 00:46:10,240 --> 00:46:11,240 Just launch already. 859 00:46:11,240 --> 00:46:12,240 Yes. 860 00:46:12,240 --> 00:46:14,600 If you got questions, message me or keep listening to this show. 861 00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:15,600 You'll figure it out. 862 00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:16,600 You'll get there. 863 00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:20,320 Well, my fellow podcasters, I hope you enjoyed all the amazing insights that Jared had to 864 00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:23,960 share about starting a conference and starting a podcast. 865 00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:28,400 To learn more about starting and growing your own show, visit us at rss.com backslash 866 00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:31,920 blog, and you can start for free at rss.com. 867 00:46:31,920 --> 00:46:33,640 Get your first episode on us. 868 00:46:33,640 --> 00:47:02,200 Thanks for tuning in.