How do you feel about the growing role of AI in content creation, and what benefits or drawbacks do you foresee? Don’t waste time thinking too much about it, tune in and get all the answers.

Today, we chat with Greg Wasserman, the head of relationships at Castmagic, a groundbreaking platform that harnesses the power of AI to help podcasters create a variety of text-based content, from show notes and transcripts to social media posts and newsletters.

Greg, who boasts a robust background in media sales and podcast advertising, shares his unique journey into the podcasting space. He drops several valuable tips, including why podcasters should start thinking of themselves as brands rather than just focusing on download numbers.

You can also get a sneak peek into upcoming features like a Zoom recorder extension, additional prompts, enhanced visual components and so much more.

Stay tuned for an episode filled with valuable insights and actionable tips to elevate your podcast game!

In this episode, we cover:

1. Overview of Castmagic features: Greg explains how the platform helps turn any conversation into content, from podcasts to coaching calls and events, with the power of AI.
2. Why podcasters should see themselves beyond just the podcast and focus on multiple content channels like blogs, social media, and newsletters.
3. How to monetize and distribute your podcast
4. Discover unique ways podcasters are using the platform to create LinkedIn posts, aggregate content for courses, and even write books.
5. Exciting future updates to Cast Magic: Greg shares new prompts, Zoom recorder integration, iOS app updates, and enhanced visual studio functionalities on the horizon.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

- Castmagic

- Shure SM7B

- Hindenburg Journalist

Follow Greg Wasserman on Linkedin

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Alright. We've got a great one for you here today. We are chatting with Greg

Wasserman. He is head of relationships at Cast Magic.

And if you don't know what Cast Magic is, you don't know what

you are missing. A phenomenal platform that helps you to create

all of the supporting materials around your podcast

and, frankly, so much more. They can create

amazing, amazing text based content for nearly

anything that you put out there with the power of AI. So excited to talk

about in some of the features that they've enrolled recently and and new ones to

come. Greg, thanks so much for joining us. Hey. It's always great talking to you.

Thanks for having me on and and giving me the opportunity to talk to, to

your people. Wow. It's it's great to have you. So you don't really come

from a traditional podcast background. Right? So, like,

what kinda led you to the road of working with Cast Magic?

What gave it away, my terrible setup? Yeah.

No. My background is in media sales. I was in the media world for about

15 years. Last company I worked with was

a mobile apps company. So we acquired apps through the apps we acquired

podcasting space. So in the 1st day, your boss is like, go figure out

Podcasting. It provides you a unique experience into the space.

Before that, I actually sold podcast ads. So using my media

background, I was at CBS, before now it's Audacy.

So I sold podcast ads there. So that was ultimately my first

introduction, running 3 Podcasting listening platforms. It gives you a unique

perspective, right? So I'm not a podcaster, but your job is ultimately,

how do I help the podcaster? In this case, I have to go work with

the hosting companies and go, Hey, if your show is hosted on X, Y, and

Z, we need to make sure that show ends up on our platform so our

millions of listeners have access to that show. So it provided you a

unique, like, let me learn all the hosting companies. And then from there, you start

working with all the platforms, whether they're a network, individual

show like yourself or agency going like, look, I

have 2,000,000 followers, too many errors. How do I help you? And

you start realizing the 3 questions every podcaster Passy is, how

do I get more distribution? How do I get, grow my audience?

And how do I monetize? Those are the 3 questions you also learned to hate

from the perspective I had. But you really started

learning what the podcast community is. And so if my

background is also partnerships, partnerships and podcasting

are very similar. They're all community-driven. It's like, how

do I help you? And can we work together? And my ethos is,

hence my title, head of relationships. Life is about time and relationships.

You have no clue where one conversation today is gonna take Tech. And that's literally

what podcasting is about. How do I come in, have a great

conversation, and now allow that conversation to be heard by other people

instead of just you and I having that conversation? So end up at

Cast Magic, long story there. Every Monday I

post 3 podcasts I think people should listen to on my LinkedIn. I did the

founders of Passy Tech Magic Show, before they even

created Cast Magic, and that ended up, connecting us. You know, it's

so interesting when you talk about this aspect of community. I think so many people

get into podcasting and the assumption is I'm behind the

microphone. I'm talking to people, but you really

find that the most successful podcasters out there

are ones who really have a relationship with the audience. It's not just

a one-way street. They really listen to their audience. They communicate

with their audience. They allow them to engage with them on the show and the

content and everything else, and really good ones build up these

huge communities of followers and passionate fans, and, frankly, they

become the advocates that help people grow their show. So that's so interesting

that, you know, you bring up this idea of community and relationships as an important

part of what has made you successful. I mean,

I'll go on to that. Yes. I think

podcasting creates you from a community standpoint, but

the core focus of what I try to think about, I mean, probably

different for your audience, but, like, stop calling yourself a podcaster and start

treating yourself as a brand is kind of what I consult people on because

podcasting just becomes a download. It's going back to the 3 questions I hated, like,

how do I make money and how do I grow my audience? Well, everyone's thinking

about how do I grow downloads or how do I make money with a CPM

or sponsorship just on my show. But there's so many ways that your content,

your conversations, you can build community beyond that. So whether it's

your blog, your social Passy, a newsletter, your website, like, all those

are different touch points that you can build a community and get feedback with.

Like, I may not always listen to your show, but I can also get your

newsletter. And I'm still giving you 3 minutes of my time. And so you're building

that community function there. So I'm really focused on how do we think

about the content you're creating here and how do you engage with the

community not just on downloads and listening to you because

maybe you're not going to. And so funny enough, you you mentioned the word

newsletter, and that is a perfect transition to talk about the

platform that we brought you to talk about was which is Passy Magic

because there have been an explosion

of platforms and solutions that take AI

and tell podcasters that they can help them generate all sorts of supporting content

for it. Cast Magic happens to be my favorite.

One of the reasons for that is the entire,

the flexibility. Right? The ability to not just say, give me show notes and give

me a transcript, but the ability to basically say, here are things that

I want, creating new prompts, looking at

what other people have done, kinda, you know, borrowing from other people's

prompts, the the community prompts idea. And so, like like you said, you

can use Cast Magic for your show notes, for your newsletters, for your social posts,

for your transcriptions. You can use it for

keywords, SEO. I mean, the list just goes on and on, and and frankly,

it's really only limited by your imagination. What are some of

the best use cases that you've seen, with Cast Magic

recently? Oh my god. I mean, look, our tagline is how do I

turn any conversation into content like magic? I always look at

content repurposing as twofold. All the examples you kinda

gave, like turn in this podcast into a blog, a newsletter, social

Passy, but then also how do I, to your question, turn that

into a course? Like I take I've taken my coaching

calls running through Cast Magic and created a course out of it, then monetize

that course. Or how do I go ahead and take an aggregate of

shows and going like, alright, I've got 5

tools. Let's take your show. I've got 5 tools that I've, been brought

on and talked about. Is there an article that we can go ahead and

organize those 5 shows into something that would be like, here's a

how to 25 step of creating your podcast based

on the 5 episodes that, have come on your show. Right? So

you hit the nail on the head. You are only limited to your

creativity. So Passy Magic, we give you, all these existing

prompts. We actually just released a bunch more today inside the

platform. Community is driven, so I will come back

to community. I know it's an overused word on the show right now, but also

in general, but it is truly community driven. The feedback you

provide us, that helps us, but that's why we also inject. And

then if you wanna come up with any prompts, go for it. So the nice

thing is is you and I could use the same prompt, but

the input is gonna be your recording versus my recording.

So other ways I've seen it, I've gone to conferences

and I've taken my, phone and I've got the

Cast Magic app on the phone and I'm like, everyone's

sitting there scribbling and writing notes and I'm like, no, I'm just gonna hit record,

have the keynote speak, record and then I

automatically have my LinkedIn content of like this is what I learned from

whatever speech I went through or how do I combine

3 of the panelists that I went and saw and create a LinkedIn post around

that? Like, how do I write a book? There are so many ways that people

are leveraging it, it really is once again creativity. What would you say is the

one mistake people are making with Castmagic, what are they doing or not

doing to tap into the full potential of the platform?

I think it's an AI overall issue as opposed to just a

Cast Magic, where you

you you expect it to be perfect. You expect it to give you what

you want. A great example is there was a person in our community yesterday

and they were struggling with a prompt. They're like, this isn't giving me what I

want, my words or my tonality maybe, but that's how I read it. And

then I looked at the prompt and I'm like, I don't even understand what you're

asking. Right? So AI is only gonna be as good

as the direction you're giving it. And so if the direction you're giving it makes

sense to you, but someone else reading it doesn't understand it, then you're not going

to get the answer you want. And I think that's a big thing not just

with Cast Magic, but just as a whole is people are like, why doesn't

it know what I'm saying? AI should know how to read my mind and all

these things, but like end of the day, like, no, it doesn't. So this, I

think, AI will actually make us better communicators. I

know there's disagreements on the other side, but, like, I think AI will

make us better communicators because you will now be

forced to actually say in a way that

makes sense to another person what you want without them having to

read your mind. And I always have analogies I use on this, but I I'll

I'll spare the, spare the, audience the analogies. Hopefully,

you get the idea. Yeah. I mean, what I always found amazing about this

platform and and maybe others have caught up to it, but I love the idea

of, yes, you gave us some standard prompts that are

useful for podcasters, but then we can go in there

afterwards and say, yes, but I want it to be more like

this or I really want to include this feature in my show notes,

and so to that point, the nice thing is is that anybody who's using

Cast Magic, maybe you don't get the results you want the first time, but you

can very easily go in, edit the prompt, or add another one,

kinda tweak and and, you know, manipulate a little bit until you zero

in on exactly what it is you're looking for and for AI to deliver

that. And then after that, all of your future content just comes out right exactly

the way you want it, not the way the platform has dictated it for

you. Yeah. And it's also editable. So the other thing is is,

like, it's not what I want. It's, like, great. You can go in there and

edit what you want. So, as you said, edit the prompt, but I can

also edit the text and go, great. It got me 80% of the way

there. How do I edit it so that it sounds a little more but like

you have full control. But as we know, like podcasters,

and this is why our platform takes any conversation, podcasters like

yourself do more than just podcasting. So how do we use your coaching calls?

How do we use your sales calls? How do we use events and repurpose that?

So like all these components you're able to, repurpose because a

lot of that content is just sitting on a shelf. So how do I help

you? Think because most of your users, most people here

are smarter than me in terms of understanding their business going like, I wish I

could do this. And now you've got a platform that could actually help you do

what you've always said you want to do. You just didn't have the time, the

resources, whatever the case may be. It's funny because, yes, you know,

I've I've primarily used this for the podcast and for generating that kind of first

round content and then taking a look at it and making a couple of massaging

efforts. But then, you know, I'm doing other businesses, and I've

been feeding in our social content, these little videos that we're making and saying, give

me some good captions. Give me some good titles. And, right, you know, the

prompts are dramatically different from what we're using for the podcast, but

we're getting some really great things and and almost copying and

pasting exactly what Cast Magic spit out after creating the

right direction for the AI to give us what we want from

our content. Perfect use case. There you go. Love

it. So if you're allowed to

say, what are some of the future features that are being worked

on for Cast Magic that users of the platform today can look forward to

or or those on the fence about whether they should sign up for it or

could look forward to? Great question. So I literally

so we have a Slack community. That's where our community lives,

1500 people or so. I just announced earlier

this morning, so for you and I talking, but those that are

listening, like, re new updates we had is we started

adding more prompts in there. So the way it's set up is

there's 8 different profiles, Podcasting, YouTube, coach,

sales, webinars. Each of those profiles, we've

already given you a packet if you wanna think about of content

that out of the box you're gonna get. And then there's community prompts

because everyone asks like, what prompts should I be doing? This is great, but

I would love to do more. So we've included prompts from the community

going like, hey, you may think this is something of interest. Getting a

lot of people asking like, I need more than one LinkedIn post.

So we just threw in 15 different options for LinkedIn Passy. Once again,

the joy is is you and I could use those same LinkedIn Passy, but the

input, our content is going to be different. Therefore, the output

is going to be slightly different. So helping people understand,

hey, You have full control over what prompts you come up with, but I'm

gonna help you. I'm gonna give you some ideas and give you guidance there.

We're working on getting a, Zoom

recorder so you can actually then start having a companion there and

have that fed directly into your Cast Magic. You have the

iPhones, the iOS app, which is a great one so you can now record

your thoughts, your brain dumps, your meetings, whatever it is while

you're on the go. Those are great things that you can look at. We'll just

continue to evolve our studio function. So studio is our visual

component to it. So, we're not trying to be Canva. We know there's a lot

of people out there doing all these components. We like to give you control

and give you the options to do more visuals. So from a podcast

standpoint, how do I start cutting those and making little

clips, But also, how do I start creating, what is Tech,

quote cards and audiograms and so forth?

Very neat. Well, if you haven't yet, check out Passy Magic. It's castmagic.i0.

And as usual, we will have a link to it here in the show notes.

You can easily find it. You don't have to write that down or memorize it.

Greg, before we let you go, we have a few questions that we'd like to

ask everybody who comes on the show. 1 and this is interesting because you have

such a diverse background and have really come into the

podcasting space from a a different side of it than most of the other folks

who we've spoken to. But is there a place in

podcasting where you would like to see dramatic improvement,

like a industry wide scale? I guess

I'm I guess I'm biased in the sense that, like, I come from the media

background. So I think the the

what I saw in media was and I always I'm gonna have to

actually look this up, but there was a big holding company that came

out years ago and they're like, we aren't buying ads unless it

is above the fold. We're not buying ads unless it's a 3 second

viewability, and that changed the game. That made all the agencies,

that made all of the tech companies, that made everyone go like, woah. I'm not

gonna get any budget from these guys, which is a lot of money when they're

one of the big companies. I've got to change my game. And I don't

think that's happening in the podcast space because right now,

Spotify just left the IAB, so, like, forget this.

Apple hasn't figured out and they saw a change in their downloads.

So I don't think there's anyone in the industry and I'm sure like sounds

profitable and Triton and Brian Barletta and Noel's teams

will are talking about it, which I followed their stuff. But like,

I truly think until we can come together as

an industry and there's a collective, let's change this,

or as we saw on the other side, a big

advertisers gonna go like, I will start spending 1,000,000 of dollars and

1,000,000,000 of dollars in podcasting if you do this.

No one's willing to do that. And so until then, it's just you're gonna be

very fragmented. So I think people will just continue to go, like,

I don't know what I'm buying. I don't know if it's working, and we will

continue to try and figure those components out. But I truly believe

Podcasting, They go back to those 3 questions. I hate, how

do we make money? And if we look at it just as a sponsorships

and a CPM and buying that, like, if I'm only going with that as

the way to make money, I think the industry will go far

beyond the 2,000,000,000 that were expected to a lot more

because at the end of the day, it's Influencers. Like, Influencer

Marketing is supposed to be like a $20,000,000 or $20,000,000,000

industry. And Podcasting, you've got basically, you're an influencer.

You are using a product. You are great. You have an audience. You have

community. So I think until the industry comes

together, that will be a problem, which will allow me to

continue to tell everyone, stop thinking about yourself as just a podcaster

and focus on more than just downloads because the industry is still trying to figure

all that out. I'd be so curious to get your reaction to this.

Like 7 years ago, I remember setting a podcast movement with the heads of Libsyn

and Blueberry and a few other companies and wondering

why didn't Google take over the audio

space the way they did the video space? They they really

you know, the acquisition of YouTube made them the central focus

of all video content. It was the platform where everyone had to go to

upload their content, to monetize their content. They are so

good at creating advertising

opportunities and selling it and auctioning it and targeting

it, and I never understood why they didn't do the

same in the podcasting space. I I really thought they would

make the YouTube of podcasting years ago, and and, obviously, they've had the

exact opposite. They've done, you know, little to nothing, and everything they have done has

floundered considerably. Any thoughts on why Google isn't

the, like, advertising platform or or why they haven't had a bigger

focus in this space? No. I mean, it's a great one. Like, everyone

you brought up Podcasting Movement. So those that are, that are where like

every year now it's like video is the thing. And what is Podcasting?

Podcast has to be renamed because it's just not audio and you've got

the purest like, no, this is, it's an RSS feed and that's what a podcast

is. But like YouTube is 2nd largest search engine and everyone's now saying

like, you gotta put your Podcasting from a video standpoint

there for reach in the search and so forth. But Tech, yeah, I honestly

don't understand, because the influencer

space has been so large and everyone's so focused on

influencers from a TikTok and Instagram standpoint, but like, let's

go back to the core, like radio and radio was the first

influencers. We go back before TV and then you got TV and you think

about how shows were sold then. Like I always think of I

Love Lucy and it was integrated in like all that stuff

back then. Why hasn't it been found where you've got these

niche audiences that you can aggregate just like you do with

influencers on Instagram. We have not figured that piece out in the

Podcasting space, and I think that is a huge miss. And I

don't understand why it's not happening. Like, I'm I'm

dumbfounded as as much as you are. That might make for a good

debate or round table discussion, to have with a bunch of folks, including the Brian

Barlettas of the world and the Tom Webster's and the Rob Waltches and and, you

know, all those good folks. Outside of that, is there any

tech? Obviously, we are podcasting tech. Is there any kind of

technology out there, whether it's hardware or software that you are just

dying to get your hands on, whether it's something that exists that you wanna

buy or something that you hope someone will create that will make your

life easier in this space? I mean, I guess the answer to that one

is I just gotta first invest in a better setup. Right? Like,

I watched your, your episode with someone and and I'm, like,

I'm I'm using my my, camera, and I'm not looking.

I'm looking down. Like, so I know I need to just invest in doing a

better setup with the limited space I have here. So I think that's

first thing. I think it already exists. I just need to go ahead and

and buy it and invest and figure out how do I set that up.

But that also goes to what I try and what we what

probably you tell podcasters is like, look, hit record,

just start doing it. You can upgrade your tech stack.

You can update your products later. Like, you don't need it now in

order to start. Just start and then you'll upgrade. I think, like, you've

done it. You're like, alright. I'll add 1 mic and then I've got another mic

and you've upgraded from there. So I think for me, that's the

first before I go and say, like, what isn't being built?

I think I think from a tech standpoint, go back from

advertising. I'll go back to that. Like, why isn't there something

there, that makes it a better experience?

Overall I think it's exciting. I think podcasting, if you're in this

space, it's exciting even if you're transgential like myself,

like I'm not a podcaster, everyone keeps asking when will I start my

own show? Right now I'm having fun being a guest and

experiencing what that experience is like

which I think goes towards most hosts listen to a show and they're like I'm

gonna start this and they've never actually been either a guest or understood what other

shows are good quality. So yeah. Right now, I think that's where my focus is

less on a tech or a software and they've never actually been either a guest

or understood what other shows are are good quality. So yeah. Right now, I think

that's where my focus is less on a tech or a software.

And you started to talk about other shows. So the last question is, what are

some of your favorite podcasts you are listening to today? The ones

that as soon as they hit your feed, you are going to listen to them.

You're gonna stop what you're doing and and check those out. They will not get

past you. None. Yeah. I know that's a terrible

answer. I listen to so many

podcasts every Monday. I recommend 3 podcasts

and that I post on my LinkedIn. And I try to focus

on not the big ones, not on the ones that everyone knows, not

on the ones that everyone's always listening to. I'm like, let me go find new

ones. Like, let me go find it doesn't matter how many downloads. Like, let me

just go learn something. Let me because the core,

the indies are always struggling. I think someone

has said, like, they've brought up, like, one dream. It's like, well, at one point,

those indies, they were indies before they they blew up or

they got, investments. So like, I'm always looking for

new shows. There's nothing that hits my feed, and even if

something does hit my feed, because I know I wanna recommend

other podcasts, I will probably skip the go to

shows and go figure out like what other shows are out there. Like recommend me,

let me know, let me listen, let me learn something. Maybe it's just one episode.

I'm like, I like the guest. I didn't like the host. Who knows? But, I'm

always trying different things. Love it. Well, if you

wanna see those recommendations, you can check out Greg's LinkedIn

profile. We'll have a link to that in the show notes below, as well as,

again, a link to Cast Magic. It is a platform that just does an

amazing job using AI to take your recordings, not just Podcasting,

but you could use, you know, any video, any

audio, open up the app that they have. It's a great app. Just record wherever

you are in the world, and it will take that information for you and transform

it into whatever it is you need for it to do. It's a great platform.

I cannot recommend it enough. We use it here at Podcasting

Tech. So Greg Wasserman, head of relationships at Cast

Magic, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for having

me. Everyone, thank you for your time listening. Thanks for

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

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Tech.