How can you as a podcaster Improve audience engagement and community building? Riverside FM has all your answers!

In this podcast episode, Mathew and Kendall Breitman, Community Manager from Riverside.fm, discuss the platform's development into an essential podcasting tool, now incorporating AI for post-production to simplify content creation. 

They reflect on Riverside FM's rise during pandemic, providing isolated video tracks for better editing, and the newest feature for adjusting conversation pace without sound distortion. The conversation covers the platform's versatility for various content scenarios, including user friendly recording, and offers practical tips for creators and guests to achieve high-quality recordings with the platform. 

Additionally, Kendall shares insights from her community manager role, emphasizing the importance of listening to build a strong community and connect with audiences. They also explore the tech gear Kendall uses and wants to explore, like the Elgato key light and a boom arm for her microphone. 

In this episode: 

• Features and capabilities of the Riverside platform
• Importance of high-quality recordings and tips for getting the best content out of the platform
• Evolution of the platform and addition of AI-based tools
• Engaging with your community and listening to user feedback
• Improving recording setup

Equipment Mentioned: 

• Riverside.fm
• Shure MV 7
• iPhone Continuity Camera
• Elgato Key Light
• PSA1 Plus
• Elgato Low Profile Arm

**As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases of podcasting gear from Amazon.com. We also participate in affiliate programs with many of the software services mentioned on our website. If you purchase something through the links we provide, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The team at Podcasting Tech only recommends products and services that we would use ourselves and that we believe will provide value to our viewers and readers.**

For additional resources and insights visit podcastingtech.com or follow us on social media:

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PODCASTING TECH IS POWERED BY:

• Captivate - Easy, professional podcast hosting to create, grow and make money from your podcasts
• Podpage - Build a beautiful podcast website in 5 minutes
• Riverside.fm - Record Podcasts And Videos From Anywhere
• Castmagic - 10x Audio Content With AI
• Podgagement - Engage your audience and grow your podcast!

EQUIPMENT IN USE:

• Rodecaster Pro 1st Gen (No longer available). Consider the Rodecaster Duo or Rodecaster Pro II
• EV RE20 with 309a Shockmount 
• Rode PSA1+
• iPhone continuity camera but previously the Logitech Brio 4k
• DCMEKA In-Ear Monitors
• BusyBox Smart Sign  

Alright. Today, we are joined by Kendall Brightman, the community manager at

Riverside.fm. And as we've said before, Riverside is platform that we

use for recording this podcast, and we're excited to talk a little bit about it

and some of the really great new features they've just been rolling out

continuously. It seems like every day I I pop onto Facebook,

Kendall's posting something in the in the Riverside community group about, hey. We're doing

this. We're doing this. We're doing this. So excited to talk about some greatest and,

truthfully, by the time this updates, it'll probably seem like old hat. But Kendall, thank

you so much for being here today. Yeah. Thanks so much for for having me.

I'm really excited to talk about all the features we're releasing Riverside,

and I'm glad that you're liking the updates. It's, it's fun to post them.

I I love to see the comments coming in and see see creators excited

about it. So that's good to hear. It's amazing when I first

started using Riverside, when it really

kinda in the early days when it was first released, it was this great platform.

You know, one of the first out there that could record local

ISO video on top of audio. Audio had been out a little

bit before that, but the first one to do video, and I was like, oh,

this is a great tool. Like, lots of podcasters should have a tool like this

in their in their toolbox of production, whether it's

for podcasts or, you know, YouTube or whatever else it is. But

today, the platform has become so much more. Tell us a little bit

about what is the kind of vision there at Riverside as it's, like,

all in one podcasting tool. Yeah. I think I think that's

really the vision is that we're, trying to develop to become this

all in one podcasting tool like you just said. So the bread and butter

of Riverside is really, as you said, like, the local recording,

high quality recordings, so that even if you're remote, you're

still able to get that studio quality. But from there, we've just

been developing like, our focus right now has also become the editor.

So being able to take the recordings that you do and

edit them, whether that's through AI tools, whether that's through transcript

Podcasting, and I think that really the name of the game

well, I like to think the name of the game is Riverside is is that

we're opening up, like, studio quality recordings

for more people, getting being able to get more people out there to tell

their stories. And so with that also comes being able to

give more people, access to an editor, being able to edit their clips

for social media, create show notes, just trying to make

like, our goal here is really trying to make end to end the recording

and editing plat the recording and editing process just a

lot easier and smoother so that you can kinda get from record to

publish with as little friction as possible. And

so, yeah, I mean, there's a few different text based editors on the market, and

you guys have kind of joined the fray in doing so. But you're starting to

take it even a little bit step further. You have a lot of AI based

tools. And what are some of the ones that folks who are recording on Riverside

can use to take their recording and go straight from that into

postproduction? Yeah. So, first off, I'd

say the AI transcripts. And I'm not talking about transcript,

based editing when I'm talking about this. I just mean that after you

record, you get a really accurate transcript that then you can

also use. Like, I love to use the transcript to put it in a chat

gpt and say, hey. Can you make social posts out of this? Can you

I used to say AI show notes, but we've actually also added

that. So after you're done every Riverside recording, you get your

transcript. You also get your AI show notes, and that has the

summary, a few key takeaways, and then time coded

kinda chapters. So you can really just copy and paste that

right into your hosting platform as your description

and, kinda just streamline that part of the process. And then on

top of that with editing tools, I mean, we had a remove silence

feature, that removes silences 3 seconds or more in your

recording, and we actually just released our newest version of that AI

feature that you can really record, whether that's 3 second

pauses, one second pauses to be able to speed up the pace of your

video. We're really leaning into AI as

part of the idea of making things easier for creators. So

we have AI chapters. So after you record, when you go in your

editor, it's already split up by chapters and what you talked about in

each of those chapters. So, those are just, like, 3 of

the tools that come off top of mind that I and we just keep we

keep adding more. I mean, by the time that this comes out, we might

have more AI features in terms of audio,

coming out to really clean up your audio. So really just trying to see

like, there's so much that could be done with AI, I mean, as far

as even show, besides show notes, like,

social posts or blog posts that you can take your transcript

and create a blog post out of it. So really trying to lean into

that because, the more work I mean, we all know

that when you're creating a podcast, the more work that you can kinda have done

for you just creates more opportunities to do what we actually love, which

is having these conversations, putting our content out there,

connecting with the people that are listening to it, that type of stuff. And what

I love about Riverside, what I've noticed is that you are you

especially are very active in the Facebook group, the kind

of the community creators group that Riverside has going there. And what I constantly

see are people asking a question like, how do I do this?

Or can I do this? And your response 99 times out of a

100 has always been, we can't do that yet,

or, oh, that's a really good idea. Let me, you know, submit

that as kinda like a request for our developers to see if they can do

it. And then it seems like for a lot of them within days or weeks

or maybe a month or 2 if, you know, they're more complicated, but it seems

like you are listening to the content creators and

constantly trying to hear what it is that they want and implement them. Is that

true? Yeah. Exactly. I mean, I would feel really, like,

disingenuous if I was just Podcasting, like, yeah. We'll let we'll let the team know.

But we really are like, I we are in direct

communication all the time with our developers and our product team,

And, it's cool to see. Like, when I joined, I

was surprised to see that, for example, when we have feature requests, we put them

in a system that kind of upvotes them. And so as more

people request different things, it'll become kinda on the top of those

developers' screens. But beyond that, like, we'll screenshot them and send

them to each other on Slack, and you'll see kind of the product people

saying, what if we added it to this tool? What if we did it this

way? It's it's really cool to to see that process, and

we really do listen to what people want and what

people are needing in their content creation. And then I also think that a

key part of it is that a lot of us use Riverside. So

if we're creating, if we're doing webinars or if we're creating, we have a lot

of people on the team that have their own Rodecaster on the side. So we're

actually using it and developing it. And then those people in our company

that do that, our product team will talk with them and say, even

like, hey. If we're gonna add a text feature, where would you

even look for that on your screen? So really just trying to,

like, keep creators in mind. And then something else that I think is

pretty cool is, that we have

like, Riverside started a few years ago, and it's

around the time that a lot of people also started their Podcasting. And

I remember random time to throw Harry Potter in here, but I remember when

we were talking about like, there was a documentary on Harry Potter,

and they're talking about how the viewers actually grew with the with

the main characters of the show. So people like, their target audience were, like,

as they were growing up, so were were the people that were obsessed with these

movies. And so it kind of feels the same here where, like, we

developed this platform and a lot of people were starting podcasting

around COVID. And so as they're developing, we're developing, and it

feels like this really cool, like, creating and growing

together, if that makes sense. I'm glad I got to throw Harry Potter in

there. No. I mean, that makes a ton of sense. And in fact, it it's

true because what I remember was I think Riverside really

first came on the scene either shortly before or shortly after the

pandemic began. And I remember that because

in my old business, we wanted to start offering video editing, and

I it became I was like, this is kind of a struggle. Right? You get

the single feed from Zoom. It's it's, you know, not all that appealing.

But then all of a sudden, Riverside pops up and you get these

isolated video tracks, and that really helped

us be able to offer better video

editing options than we could before that. And so right during the

pandemic, a lot of people are stuck at home. A lot of people are thinking,

how am I gonna get my message out there? How am I gonna communicate with

the masses? And so a lot of them were starting Podcasting around the same time

that Riverside was popping up and starting to implement all these great

features. I I love how

you recently added something about speeding up the

pace of the conversation. What's that all about? Yeah. So that

actually it's a really cool feature to me because a lot of the time

like, I'll watch TikTok videos or something, and I'm like, how do these

people talk so fast? And as you can already tell, I'm already a

I'm a fast talker, But you wanna, like, I've been

told sometimes, but, like, you wanna speed up your video

but without kind of sounding I used to work in in

television news, and we'd always speed up the videos, and then everyone would

sound like a chipmunk while you're editing. So this

idea is that you're able to speed up the videos, but without

it distorting the sound of your voice. So that's all

about cutting out silences. So, the new feature

that we have with set pace, you can really just take a toggle and take

it from your original pace to natural, to fast,

super fast, and just kinda toggle it back and forth and see how

the video changes, or you can export 1 in a

natural pace and then export a clip in super

Passy. And so those were really

again, we're just we're looking at content that

creators are creating and then responding to that and

saying, okay. How do we create something that's

gonna be more friendly for social, and that's gonna help

creators do it in a way that they're not individually picking out

every bit of silence. So, really, again, just trying to make it, like, if

not one click, then just a couple clicks to get you towards your final

product. You know what I also found interesting was, you know, as you said, this

was kinda created around the same time. Lots of people were starting their Podcasting,

but I I'm often surprised by the

types of uses that people talk about having with Riverside in the

group. Like, oh, I wanna use it for x or I wanna use it for

y. Talk to me about some of the ones that you've heard people talk about

and maybe any that really surprised you. Yeah. I

actually like, the 2 that come to mind are actually about businesses.

So, you know, podcasting is kind of the general use case, but

then I spoke with, with a

creator who interviews CEOs in, like, c

level positions, and they just sit down for an

hour, and we'll have a conversation every week. And then they'll take

that and, like, either they will break it up for

social clips to just get the CEO out there in front of

in front of users on social, or they will create

internal videos based off of it. So that's one cool

kinda use case. But the other one that's actually been pretty

cool for me to see is that because especially with things like the

editor and making it easier to edit, you're able

to open up for businesses more people who can kinda get

in on the creation process. So somebody like me. Like, I'm a marketer.

I'm not a video editor. But if I record something or if

somebody else on my team records something, I can go in and edit it and

make social clips and put them out there. And so,

in that case, I don't have to send it to my video editor, have that

be added to the millions of projects that he's working on for really what is,

like, a simple video. I'm cutting out 2 people having a

conversation. But what we're seeing more businesses doing is that

their their social, their social media managers are

now video editors or their head of communications can

be, and so it kinda allows more people

to be using it. And then on top of it, I mean, like,

there are a ton of just really interesting

kind of podcasts out there. I Samson the other day where a guy was podcasting

while he was, like, driving an Uber. So you could see,

like, which I don't know. I don't know how if, I want my Uber

driver podcasting, but you could literally see people,

like, walking like, coming into his car, walking out of his car as

he's recording this podcast, and it's was really a moment that I was like,

wow. You can you can really record from anywhere. Yeah. I don't

know how I feel about it it's even less about, like, the privacy issue

of I didn't ask to be on your podcast when I signed

up for Uber, but more just the even though you're not you don't have your

hands on your phone, like, clearly, you're not a 100% focused on the

road. Right? Like, that's just Oh, yeah. That I'm always bothered by whenever

I see content creators who are doing something while driving. That's,

Yeah. I mean, it was it was more of, like, an extreme use case,

but I those are definitely ones that pop out to me. But, like, we see

people also, like, with documentaries or something like that. They'll

record, like, their talking head kind of videos or record an

expert, and they're able to still get the high quality that, like,

it matches up with the rest of the documentary, things like that.

So, yeah, it's super cool to see just really, like, how people take

it, whether that's in business or in their Uber driving business.

So, you know, to that point, right, because this platform allows you to record

with people anywhere, anytime, It, you know,

eliminates the need for people to be in person to still get high quality

content, but it also means that you have a lot of people who are joining

podcasts, joining conversations without

somebody on-site with them to help them out, right, without someone physically holding their

hand and whatnot. So I guess what would be your advice to

both the content creators and also just to the

guests as far as how to ensure they get the best

content out of this platform. I mean, it is it's easy enough, but,

right, if you do what are the few tweaks that if you make, you'll get,

like, the really just the, you know, recording out of it?

Yeah. I like, my recommendation is if you can

get your guests to use their phone as a webcam,

That is my top recommendation because, we make it

easy to connect your phone. Also, if you have a iPhone and a Mac,

you're able to connect to via continuity Samson, and

that's what I'm doing. That's what I'm recording on right now. Same here. So

yeah. And so, like, your laptop camera is only gonna be able to go up

to 7 20 p. So no matter if you make everything look

amazing, like, that's the quality that you're gonna get. So my first thing is

that if you have a guest that's, like, game to try to connect their phone,

it's really a lot easier than you'd think. And in that case,

you're just able to get a lot better quality. Asking

them to wear wired headphones, I have heard from many an audio

editor. And so but my main

kinda recommendation is that you're gonna wanna pick a few

things that are most important to you. So, for example, if you want that high

quality video, asking if they can connect their phone or why wearing

the wired headphones. When I see a list of, like,

face a window, wear wired headphones, connect with this, do that, like,

it becomes too much, and you want them to really, like, come into the

conversation, like, as if it's a normal

conversation. You know? The more that you try to, like, set up and

and create this moment, the more like, the less

natural they're going to be. So a really good point.

Yeah. I just find that, like, it's also why I, there are different

settings within the Riverside Studio. Like, I disabled my countdown

only because I felt like, there's a countdown once you press record that

takes you down from 5, only because I feel that sometimes when you're about

to record, you get a little bit more upright, you get a little bit

more like, I want to put as as little friction

between person and having that conversation as possible.

But little things like, if you there

we have on our community group, or we're going to be posting them soon, like,

a quick list, a quick checklist of face don't have a window

behind you, face a window, but trying not to

kinda overload them with as much information.

If we had a very similar list that we would give clients

to pass along to their guests, And if I can make one

recommendation, the last thing on that list, smile.

It is people always forget that, one,

obviously, this is a video, you know, visual medium that we're using it in. But

even if you're just using the audio off it, people can hear the difference

between someone who is smiling and excited to be on your

podcast versus the person who's like, Tech. Thanks for having me. Right? Like, if this

Samson doesn't sound like they wanna be here, why do I wanna listen to that?

And so we always include that as a last step for everybody. It's like, alright.

You've got this. You've got this. You've got this. Now smile and have fun.

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I would also say what makes a

huge difference is, like, eye level camera. If you're gonna have that,

like, I've seen so many videos where the person has, like, it on

clearly on their laptop camera, and they're kinda just, like, looking down at

it. And it really just like, even just having

them put their laptop, if that's their the the,

webcam that they're gonna be using on a stack of books, Just having it

eye level is makes so much it makes such a difference.

You know, that might be me then requesting in a feature, which is the ability

to arrange the boxes on the recording the way I want it. Because

right now, I have you kind of squished in and we're stacked on top of

each other. But I'm on the top, and you're on the bottom. So I'm looking

down a little bit to watch you, whereas I should you know, I wanna

be looking at you at the camera level. So maybe if that's not a request

that's already in the making, you can, drop that to the developers. I'm gonna drop

it to developers either way, but I do know that it's something that we're that

we're aware of. So I hope that we can have some updates for you on

that because that and editing layouts too, are definitely

definitely on our radar. Yeah. I mean, there are there's obviously a

little bit of room for improvement, but I think to your point earlier, if you

are not a full time video editor, if you have not done tons

of video editing in your life, if you don't have the budget to outsource this

to a professional video editor, the nice thing is that you can go from

recording to editing and put out a really

nice product. It is not gonna look like, you know, it came out of

Hollywood or it's not gonna look like, you know, Joe Rogan kinda setup, but it

is going to be quality enough that you can stand by it. You can post

it. You can be proud of it. So encourage folks to use it. Just

I we, you know, we have questions that we ask everyone, but before we get

to that, you know, you have a interesting background in

journalism and you mentioned, you know, working in television, But you've

taken on this role as a community manager, and so many

podcasters need to have a community. They need a

Facebook group. They need a way to interact with their audience. So just wondering, what

have you learned in that role as a community manager that maybe you can pass

on to Podcasting a way to improve the way they connect to their audience?

I would Samson. Yeah. First of all, I was actually gonna mention this

when we're talking about the stacking. I'm just so used to, like, I was in

I worked at NBC News and Bloomberg News before this. I've gotten so used

to just, like, looking in a camera as if it's a news hit and being

like, back to you. You know what I mean? So I'm always just, like, looking

at this camera rather than my computer. But, yeah, my

background is in television production, and I was a

political reporter. And so my biggest piece of

information when you're starting a community is to not assume

anything and to listen. And by that, I mean,

like, I'm from, oh, the world of journalism. So when

I started the community, I I was like, okay. Or when I started my community

manager role, I was like, okay. People want to

network. Like, they want like, I'm coming from a place that, like, who you

know is your currency, how you speak, like, having that kind of

community of sources and things like that. So I came into it being, like,

networking. That's the name of the game. But then what I did was I

actually took time to speak individually to community

members. And once I dug in, I realized that my assumptions

were partially correct. Like, people do wanna network, but, like, if

you dig into it deeper, they wanna network because they wanna

learn from each other or make their podcast better in some way,

whether that's finding a guest for it, whether it's promo

swaps, whether it's having a mentor that they can ask,

like, have you used this mic? So it's

it's a lot about learning. That was the main driver, and I wouldn't

have found that out unless I spoke with people and actually listened.

So some of that was from user calls. Some of that was from

going to other communities and just seeing what the conversations are

like, going to Reddit and filtering based on,

like, the most popular Passy, like, what gets people

talking, excited, engaged. It's almost like

if you think about your community like a party. You know? Like, what do

your people want at the party? What kind of music do they want at the

party? What kind what time does it start? You know, like, understanding

what they want and delivering that. And I think sometimes it takes

going to other parties to do that is what I mean. Like, seeing where

where they're, like, congregating, seeing what they're excited about.

So as you build your community, I would say, like, maybe

you're not able to reach out directly to your listeners. But maybe,

let's say that you have, like, a health and

wellness podcast. Maybe it's about going to Facebook groups that are

about that and just seeing what people are asking, what's exciting to

them, and then not spamming them with your content, but,

like, engaging with them to make yourself part of the

party and then kinda be like, also, there's a pretty cool

party happening over here, and it's mine. Why don't you come over? You

know? So I think that it's about just it's it's about listening

and understanding and then reacting from there. It's so

interesting because as podcasters, what we want are listeners.

And it's you know, what you were saying, which I I totally agree with,

is one of the best ways for you to get more listeners is you

have to listen. And I don't think a lot of people figure that they think,

well, I've got the microphone. Everybody should be listening to me, but, no. What does

your audience want? What is your community looking for? What is it that's gonna resonate

with them? And maybe you are one of those people who just

knows, but most of us don't. So you're gonna have to go out there and

ask the questions and and find it out. So, once again,

Kendall is the community manager at riverside.fm. If you haven't checked out that

platform before, we encourage you to do so. We'll have a link to it here

on the bottom in our show notes so you can check it out. And as

I've said, all the interviews that we've done up to this point have been through

this platform. So I've been a big fan of it and been using it forever.

Before we let you go, I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions that we've

been asking everyone. First of all, just on tech stack real quickly,

I know you're using a Shure MV 7, kinda see that working right

there. And as you've mentioned, using your iPhone continuity

camera, any other tech in your life

that you personally wanna get a hold of? Is there

some device or or something out there you're like, I really wish I can

get x, whether it's out there or something that someone needs to

create for you? Well okay. So I will say that I'm in

my I'm in the Riverside office right now, and we're building our

studio. So these are, like, low hanging fruits, but I'm just, like, trying to

build up a studio here. So I'd say this is, like, studio for beginner. I

wanna get an Elgato, key light only because then you

can, like, you can, balance through the white balance from your

computer and kind of like, right now, I have a ring light that kind of

is set to 3 different modes, like, kind of more yellow, blue, or

white. So I want something that you can actually, like, program on

your computer and really change the settings there. So,

from one of my colleagues, Steven, who has a crazy setup, he

recommended the Elgato. So we're looking looking into that. And we had the pleasure of

chatting with Samson, and, yeah, he's he's not the first or the last to,

mention that being one of the things that they want. Yeah. Well yes.

And Steven's setup is crazy. He's, like, a whole smart home thing where he could

adjust the lighting. And now compared to that, this

is a really low hanging fruit, but I really want a

boom, like, a microphone boom arm. They call it a

boom arm here? In in TV, I remember they called it that. Like, a Kinda

like this. Exact exactly like that. Wow.

Now you're just bragging. I'm kidding. But it's

just like I like, the importance of that for

me is just to be able to type and have my arms around and feel

like I'm not gonna knock the microphone in that way and just as as few

things that I can have on this desk. So my, like,

very beginner kind of wish list is that Elgato key

light and probably a road. Is it? Yeah. Yeah. This

is the PSA 1 plus. This is a I it's funny because I had the

boom arm that, literally when I left my last

job in radio, the engineers, like, I'm giving parts away to people who I know

will use it. Otherwise, they're gonna get scrapped. And so I had this it was

a nice mic arm, but, you know, after a while, I got a little janky,

and I just upgraded this about a year or so ago. And the other

day, I was chatting with someone, and they were talking about the Elgato boom arm,

but not the one that hangs down, the one that comes up. It's like what

they call, like, a low profile arm. And I'm sitting there thinking like, oh, man.

I really want that. But as you say it, one of the reasons why I

like this is because it keeps my arms free. Right? If I need to reach

around on my desk or something like that, I'm not banging into it as you

said. So Exactly. I want something from the side, yeah, that kinda,

like, hangs down, and then I we I'm, like, facing

a wall right now, so my dream would be to kinda have, like, some sort

of tripod to hold my phone out of the wall, because right now when I

type, it's, because the tripod's on the desk, it can get a

little, like, a little shaky. So, really, my my whole thing's about,

like, stabilizing and lighting right now. That's that's been my my goals

here. So good to know there's not an earthquake where you are recording from. Yeah.

Or else or else you'd really see it in this video. Out outside

of the things that Riverside is doing, is there places where you'd like

to see improvement in the podcasting space in general,

whether it's from the you know, on the creator side, on the publisher

side, on the listening side? Like, is there just something that if you

have the power to wave your arm and say, I wish we could do this

in podcasting? Mhmm. Oh, for sure. I

would say I think there needs to be more support on bigger

platforms for indie podcasters. By that, I mean,

like like, everyone is listening to Wondery

or, like, you know, those bigger kind of, like, conglomerates.

Media companies. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And it's always like that. But

I really wish that maybe, like, Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts would push up

some of that independent creator content because people are

making really incredible content, and then you

go on to Apple Podcasts, and it's all the the Wonderies, the

Dear Medias, that kind of stuff. So I really wish that there'd be a little

bit more celebration of, like, what people are kinda

doing on their own. I don't know how that would I mean,

my first thing would say, like, Apple Podcasts kind of featuring those a bit

more. But, yeah, that's been that's been something that I wish

because I've discovered so many podcasts since I've joined that now I've kinda

told my friends about it, and they've loved them. And then

you like, they wouldn't have been able to find it otherwise, and there's so much

good content out there. Yeah. That's, in a conversation we

had recently, we were talking about how it wasn't that long ago that

this space was dominated by independent creators and that

big brands and media conglomerates were like, that's cute, but we're not really

interested in now. The tables have totally turned. There's lots of money and lots of

big companies. Everybody's making a play for podcasting, and it's kinda, like I

said, push those more independent voices off to the side. So

I unfortunately, you know, Spotify has an interest in promoting their

big ones because they're paying those creators and, you know, same thing

with Apple. Right? Wondery is selling subscriptions, so Apple is

kind of incentivized to be like, well, yeah, let's sell more subscriptions because we're getting

a piece of that. So it is a it's a hard thing to to

reconcile. Exactly. And then you also see a lot of creators now making

their own networks. So, like, I talked with a creator who has an AI podcast.

He's doing a network of other AI podcasters. And so it's smart, but

I just wish that there were ways to really, like, uplift

more voices. Yeah. Well, Well,

speaking of which, I'm gonna give you a chance to do that because the last

thing we always ask everybody is their favorite podcast that they're listening to.

So what's 1 or 2 that when those episodes drop, you are

immediately listening to or, you know, you're not gonna let those, just hang

out in the library for too long? Okay. This is, like, kind of

embarrassing, though. So I listen to a lot of,

like, reality show Podcasting. That's okay. It's just be it's just

because I like to just, like, listen to a Podcasting. Like, either it's true

crime, and lately, I haven't been as into it. I go up and down,

or it's, reality television podcast.

So my embarrassing one, and it's just my I'm just gonna be

completely honest. It's called Reality Gaze, and it's 2 gay

men who are hilarious talking about reality

TV. And this is what I mean when, like, with, like, independent Tech of

podcasters. So I was, like, sitting here listening to them

laughing alone, and then I found their Facebook group.

There's, like, 20,000 people in that Facebook group. I don't know if that's exactly

the number, but it's, like, 1,000 and 1,000. And so

it's really and then I joined it, and immediately, it was just like, wow. There

are all of these people like me that are listening to,

like, this hilarious reality TV show

recap podcast. So that's my embarrassing

one, but then I feel a little bit a little bit,

not what's the what's the word? A little bit validated by the fact that I

found this Facebook group, and I'm like, there are more of you. So

that's my little shout out, and I hope you don't judge

me for it. There is absolutely no judgment here. That's the beauty of

Podcasting that everybody can find something

that is special to them, and it could be

huge, grandiose, you know, general mass appeal, or it

can be really tight specific

niches. And even that niche, it doesn't have to be

what you're talking about or who you're talking to, but just the

filter for which you are talking about it. And so I'm

sure there are lots of reality show, you know, Podcasting

reaction shows and whatnot. But, you know, the fact that you found this one that

speaks to you in a way and obviously has a huge community that supports

it, I think that's exactly what makes this medium so great. And,

yeah, judgment free zone. You listen to what you wanna listen to.

No. I I just, like, I I listen to a bunch, and it's just there's

some hosts. Like, I think that that's a really important part of this, that there

are some hosts that you just connect to more that you can be

recapping. Like, I hear so much people saying, oh, there there

are enough podcasts. Do we need another podcast? You'd never say that about, like,

do we need another book? You know? Like, Netflix and Hulu put

out the same storyline at the same time, and still people

watch both and then talk about which one they like more. So if,

like like, there are so many like, there will be so many

podcasts recapping the same exact episode of the same exact reality

show. It's about finding a host that you're like, I just enjoy

every minute of hearing you talk about this topic. Well and

I think you're you're highlighting the thing that makes a good podcast

great is that Mhmm. When you feel that connection, when

you stop feeling like a listener and you feel like

the host is in the back seat of your car chatting while you're

driving. Right? And it feels very intimate and very connected,

and you feel a bond with them. If you can accomplish that, you're doing

something really special. And, you know, it

might take some time, but you should be able to find success with this space.

And in the meantime, if you're thinking about doing that and you need to connect

people remotely, can't emphasize enough that we like

Riverside.fm. Kendall Brightman is the community manager for

them. We encourage you to check them out. And, so grateful that

you took the time to chat with us today, and I'm sure with all the

new features you guys are coming out with, we can, do this again in a

few months. Yeah. I would love that. Thanks so much for having me on. This

was great.