This is Outspoken. The podcast is not afraid to say exactly what you're thinking. Our names are Amy Kate and Sophie Torba. We're identical triplets, but we often don't have identical opinions, so sometimes things can get heated. Outspoken covers all things reality TV, influencers, entertainment, and issues facing women. That is so fatch. Thank you, thank you for joining us. Now, this definitely isn't the podcast we thought we would be recording today, and to be honest, we were pretty reluctant
to do so. But upon reflecting about why we started the podcast, we really thought it was important to do so. Now, for those who don't know my sisters Amy and Sophie, they were both reporters at Channel seven and they were unfairly dismissed when Amy became a victim of sexual harassment. Now, going back to the reason why we started the podcast, we felt like we lost our voices in that whole scenario.
So we wanted to create a podcast where we could talk about whatever we wanted, where I suppose we could inspire women to stand up for their rise, and that's why we decided to call the podcast Outspoken. We also think it's important to stick up for yourself and speak out about something that you don't really find just or fair, And in this instance, there were so many questions raised over this matter that we thought we really needed to
address them. Now, the matter, of course, involves a podcast that we released on Tuesday morning, and in that podcast, we dissected Shameless's transition from journalists to influencers, and we spoke about what happened when you turn into the subject that you critique. Now, we felt like we provided a fair and balanced analysis of the podcast. However, later that night,
we received a review that really surprised us. Now that review was from Genevieve Day, who is Shameless's manager, and the review read the copycat style is a shame or it could have added new voices and opinions. Now, can we just say there was some comments regarding whether this comment was real. We have received a message from gereneviev confirming the comment is from her. Now, this is from
her a few account on Instagram. Yes, and also she has left reviews on Shameless's podcasts and Love et cetera podcasts. They're quite glowing reviews obviously, so we are one hundred percent certain that this is Genevieve Day, so we just wanted to make sure people were aware of that. Secondly, we also want to make people aware that we are
in no way hating on Genevieve at all. We want to discuss Genevieve's actions, not her as a person, and in order to do so, we wanted to provide some context to who she is and why this comment was important for us to discuss. So, Genevieve is the director of influencer and talent management agency Day Management, so she manages influencers such as Tally Smith, Sarah Davidson, Flex Mammy, Nick Davidson, and she also manages podcasts like Sees the Ya,
Reality Check and of course Shameless. And it's fair to say that Genevieve is really a public figure in her own right. She has almost five thousand followers on Instagram and she's been featured on a range of podcasts, including the daily talk show Beauty Island, podcast, Sees, the Yay and Uncommon. Now, what's really problematic about Genevieve's review is
the fact that the podcast she manages Shameless. Of course, they have been very outspoken on the fact that they have been receiving comments on their review section, which they have labeled as trolling comments. And it would be fair to say that the review we've received from Genevieve wasn't the nicest comments. So it does seem quite contradictory that in one sense they're calling out others for critiquing their podcasts,
but then their manager is then slamming other podcasts. Yes, it's definitely safe to say the review we received from Genevieve wasn't constructive criticism at all. If anything, it was an attempt to punch down at us. It actually did seem quite calculated, and it's strange to think that a manager of talent of influencers would then just jump to
write a bad review. And I suppose that gets us on to the point about what these sort of star ratings and reviews mean for small businesses, because a review can really cripple a business. So say a restaurant, if you go on there and give them all one star review, that is really going to stop a lot of people
from eating at that restaurant, which is the same for podcasts. Well, the hit network in Cofspay actually picked up on this story this morning and they were speaking about how these one star reviews are very detrimental to small businesses, and we should also put it into perspective that, especially during the coronavirus, there are so many small businesses that are
financially taking hits. I mean, for us, this is a side project and something that we're very passionate about, but for many other people this could be their major source of income. And it's very unfair to receive negative reviews simply because you dared to critique another podcast. And it's not just Genevieve's review, Let's be honest. There was a string of reviews that were sent at the same time
that were hateful in nature and it's just disappointing. Now we should probably move on to this notion of copycatting because some people have defended Genevieve's comments saying that our podcasts and a number of other podcasts are a copy of Shameless. So I mean, we, like many other podcasts,
we find inspiration from other content creators. Now it's important to note, and we also spoke about this in Tuesday's episode, that of course Shameless aren't the first type of podcasts that have discussed pop culture and celebrity news, and they won't be the last. And I don't think it's fair just because one has received great love and respect that we can't accept anyone else in that stage. You know what, though, when people have compared us to Shameless, I've kind of gone, oh,
that's a really great comparison. I mean, they're an amazing podcast, and I do think that there is room for everybody. There's so many amazing podcasts that I listen to that touch on similar topics, and I think it's crazy to say that, you know, just because you love one, there
can't be another pop culture podcast out there. One listener raised a really great point, and she talked about the internalized misogyny thrown at female hosts, and she wrote, I do wonder, though, with all of the discussion about it being a copy, are people just saying this because we don't want too many female presenters using the podcast space. Who cares if they're a similar format? I listened to
Afterword Drinks and Shameless and find the QUI similar. I don't think people tend to care if a male led podcasts are replicas, And I think this is such a valid point. Yeah, I do agree, Sophie, and there is plenty of space for everyone I know. I am always looking for podcasts to listen to, and let's hope we can move on from this and it can be a
more positive place where women are supporting women. What is sad, though, is this is kind of raise the issue of women being pitted against each other, and I suppose it's what's interesting is the fact that it's another woman doing it to a group of women, if that makes sense. So it is a difficult one, yeah, And I think that women really can be successful together. I don't think we need to be I don't think it should be that there can only be one successful female podcast. I think
there's definitely room for everyone's voice to be heard. And I really do hope that this makes Apple Podcasts change the way it accepts reviews, because clearly, at the moment, you can go in and write whatever name you want and say whatever you want and continuously go in and write messages and with no consequences, Yeah, and have no consequences.
So I think it's important. Perhaps people should be able able to review with their phone number or real name attached, and I think that would stop a lot of the comments that negative comments that Shameless has been getting, and hopefully the ones that we have been receiving, and in no way do we want to incite people leaving negative comments on anyone's walls. This is meant to be a
positive space. I think if you've got nothing constructive to say to someone, just don't say it, then exactly right. And I want to say that we love reading the reviews. Even though we have received some constructive feedback, we would definitely take it on board because at the end of the day, we want to improve our podcast as best as we possibly can, and we wanted to finish this podcast on a high by mentioning some of our favorite
female led podcasts. And the first one I wanted to talk about was Life Uncut by Brittany Hockley and Laura Byrne, and it has become a favorite of mine and a go to podcast I listened to when going on a walk. It is fantastic. They cover all things, love, relationships, just juicy stories. There's also Courtney Magnance podcast, which is the Pop Culture Club and the podcast she runs with her brother Sam, The Spin Life. Then of course there's Kickpod,
which we love. It's a lot by Abby Chapter. Oh my god, that is my absolute favorite podcast at the moment, I just love how raw and real Abby is. Then of course I'm loving love, etc. And shameless. How can you go past shameless? There's also Sarah's days podcast, The Health Code that's of course with her boyfriend Kurt, and also an OG favorite of mine is The Jillian Michaels Show.
And we'd also love to hear all of your podcast suggestions, so if you could leave them in the comments below, and if you've got a podcast that you've just started, feel free to tag us because we would love to hear your podcast and help you promote it in any way we can. So thank you so much again for listening to the show. We do hope you did enjoy it, and we hope that you took it for what it was meant to be. Thanks