My name is Todd Cochran, CEO and cofounder of Blueberry Podcasting. And I'm Dave Clements. I'm a customer support agent at Blueberry. Hey. We officially attended our 1st podcast conference of the year, kicking it off strong with Podfest in Orlando. And today, we're gonna talk to you about Podfest that we attended last week and where you're gonna be able to find this out later this year.
You're listening to Podcast Insider hosted by Mike Dell, Todd Cochran, and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow, and thrive through podcasting, all with the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in. Well, Dave, this was your first podcast conference. What were your takeaways from the event? What was your experience as a first time attendee?
Yeah. So not only was this my first podcast conference with Blueberry, this is my first podcast conference, period. And I've been doing this for 12 years. So I think I had these really big expectations and and, I guess, anxieties about who I was gonna meet because I knew some of the names that were gonna be there. So I had to, like, tone down the fanboy part of it before we, like, walked in and saw people.
But once we got into it, got the booth set up, I was really, really happy with the traffic that we got from a company perspective. From a support perspective, it was really nice to meet a bunch of newer podcasters and then talk to some people that had been doing this for not nearly as long as I have. But, you know, just being able to, like, learn some faces and go, oh, yeah. You are a Blueberry customer, and it was really good to see you. But we had that several
times. I got to walk around the floor a little bit and check out some of the vendors that were there with us and just chit chat a little bit. And I gotta say, like, podcasters, by and large, are really nice, great people. And I think this conference solidified that for me. You know, from a fanboy standpoint, what did did you run-in in some people that you were fans of? Yeah. So when I started podcasting 12 years ago, Daniel j Lewis and Dave Jackson were, like, the guys that were teaching people.
And so I knew they were gonna be there. I've communicated with them a couple of times as an employee, and we were actually setting up the booth. And I'm bent over trying to, like, put this thing together, which that is that is an experience in and of itself. So that's a good way to get a new employee broken in. But I'm I'm putting this together and I hear this voice and, you know, power of podcasting. I'm like, oh my god. I know who this is.
And I turn around, and it's Dave Jackson, and he's, like, almost getting ready to run into me because he was looking behind him. I didn't see him either. So, yeah, that was that was an interesting experience. And then I think it was that first night after booth setup and whatever, we were just out talking to people. And we were sitting at a table, and I just happened to see this face that I'm like, I know that face. But, again, power of podcasting Right. I don't have a face
that is locked in. And almost right past me, there's there's Daniel. So, like, I reached out and I was like, hey, Daniel. And then I was like, I don't know what I'm doing after this. What do I say? Thank god you were there, and then the conversation started up. Yeah. So I was like, oh, okay. But those are kind of the the 2 big names. So I've met them. They're old news now. I'm Yeah. I can move on. What's funny about it is is in in the end, everyone's just podcasters.
Yeah. You know? And, you know, these names and and and voices you've heard for all these years. And, you know, I think what's really weird is what's on the reverse side is when you're out somewhere in the public Mhmm. And you're like, I remember years years ago, I was in Chicago at the airport, and I was in line McDonald's. And I didn't even say anything, and someone come up and grabbed me and said, hey. I I'm a listener of your show. It was it was a little bit weird.
So it kinda works the other way, and you're kinda like, who is this person? And they know you, and you don't know them. But in the end, I think, you know, that's the the beauty about these events. It's kind of like a family reunion to an extent. And, you know, Daniel has is not at all of those podcast events. Daniel, of course, is known for the audacity to podcast. That's a podcast he's done for many years. I don't know if he's
still doing it or not. And he's also been inducted in podcast hall of fame, same as Dave Jackson. And, you know, Dave is you know, now he walks around. He's got this you know, almost looks like Albert Einstein with the big white head of hair, best way to describe it. But, you know, Dave's always popular, and and it's it's it's fun to run into people. So you're you're experiencing it. I have to just tell the audience here. Dave knocked it out of
the ballpark, ladies and gentlemen. If if he was he was on point talking with the content creators whether they were new, existing, and it was just like, you are born natural, man. You don't know it, but you you could be a killer salesperson. And, you know, so you're thinking, oh my god. Don't say that, Todd. But it's true. You you did a great job. And so for me, that was it was like I didn't have to train you. Nothing. It just, bam, we just kinda
went into it. We kinda went over some things that we normally, you know you got first of all, ask the podcaster, do they have a podcast? And if you if they do or they don't, that helps shape the conversation. If they do, where are they hosting at? And then it follows into, okay, are you happy where you're at and, you know, what what's missing in your show? Yeah. That was that was something for me. Like, I've never done anything like that. Yeah. I mean, I'm used to
being in my office. If somebody calls on the phone, I can adapt because they don't have to look at me. Sure. You know, I got time. But then when you have, you know, 3 or 4 people start to line up, I actually started to take cues from you. And it's actually funny. I'll back up just a little bit. So we got there and got everything set up. And the the first you know, I guess it start open at, like, 3 or something. Yep. Yep. And 3:30, Todd ditched me. Yeah. I had a I
had a recording to do. Yeah. He he had his own show to do. So literally a half hour, we had maybe talked to 1 or 2 people. Right. It was hardly anything. Disappear and I was like, oh, no. So I just I adapted and, you know, I was like, okay. I know the products pretty much inside and out. I can talk about these things. If I don't know, I'll just tell them you can come back. You're
gonna be here all weekend. Yep. But, yeah, once you came back and we started doing it, I I started to listen to you talk to people, and then that would improve my answers and the way that I talk to people. So it was just it's really just mimicking what you were doing. Yeah. Well and and the thing is I have the advantage of, you know, 19 years and, you know, 100 probably more than a 100 conferences. But in one thing is for sure, you know, and I guess a compare and contrast is
it's it's about the same every year. You have brand new people that are thinking about doing a show or people that done a show years ago and thinking about coming back and doing another show or they're existing, and it's just fun to get those experiences. Now I will say, Podfest for any of you that are listening, that are considering going to show, this is a definitely a creator show. And from what I could tell, you and I were stuck in the booth.
So, sadly, we didn't get to go out and really hobnob and go into any any of the actual sessions. So Right. But they were well attended. And so I think if you're a new podcaster or existing podcaster, this is probably a show to put on your list because it's definitely an independent content creator show, and they have it on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday. They have a wrap up event on Sunday that's not mandatory.
But if you fly in even early Thursday morning or late Wednesday night, You only have to take 2 days of vacation time if you work Monday through Friday, and you can maybe get a little mini vacation there in Orlando out of it. So it's not like you're taking Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, travel Monday, travel Friday, and have to blow a whole week's
worth of vacation. So this is why I really now for us, you know, we have to work to we we work Saturday, and then we flew home on Sunday, then we're back in the office Monday. So we didn't have a break. But for the content creators, this makes a real great experience, and it's probably the difference between, like, podcast movement. Now, again, I think I think we talked about 80 people at the booth, which is great. I don't know. What do you how many people
do you think were at the show? Do you think there was a 1,000 people at the show? I feel like there it it had to have been close because it got to a point where maybe Friday night, Saturday morning, I felt like I wasn't seeing like, I was I was starting to see the same faces over and over again. But for for me, you know, I I think yeah. There there had to have been a lot of people because I'm pretty good with faces. Yep. And I at first, I wasn't
seeing a lot of repeats. So it seemed like when things started to slow down maybe with, like, the sessions and and tracks and things like that, then people are like, I don't have anything to do. I might as well Yeah. Go back into the exhibitor hall. There's always a segment that never makes it to the show floor, which is sad. They tried to entice certain groups to come in, but I think that, overall, we probably
saw the majority of the traffic. Not not every and sometimes we'll have a couple 2, 3 people lined up, and that's where my anxiety always goes up because I'm trying not to shortchange person I'm talking to, but also know that there's someone waiting to talk. Sometimes that works and they leave and they never come back. You're like, oh, crap. We missed 1. But if they really wanna talk to us, they'll they'll come back. So I did an AI session on how to grow and sustain your show. It's full house.
And about 75% of the people that were in the room were using some sort of AI product. But I absolutely I believe I floored them because I talked about the process that I do and what I'm getting out of it, how it's improving my show. And one thing we I was talking about was a goal and how many podcasters don't have a goal for the show. So I was talking about how you could just use chat g p t to help you with a goal. You know, you kinda write for basically, this is my
this is the goal of the show. This is what I want to accomplish. You write it out very simply. You write out how many episodes you wanna do a week. And by the way, if anybody wants those slides, they can email me, [email protected]. I'm happy to send you the slides even if you weren't there. And it basically then and I asked it also to give me an action plan, and it print and I use the goal that I had when I started my show many years ago.
And the the the goal and the mission statement were dead on and had an act basically, this is what I knew I was working towards. And then the action plan laid out steps that I would take to build the show to reach that goal. Now what I was surprised about was the depth that went. It did like a almost a 1 year action plan. And I read through that action plan, and it was too big to put on the screen. But the output was almost what I had done without on my own. Basically, it's space. It was
really close. Not exact, but but it was close. And then I walked through, you know, the value of a good title, good show notes, talk about chapter files and the impact and the and talked about episode art, talked about the transcript, the value of the transcript, and how much you can use the transcript with AI.
So I really went kind of through this process, but the most important thing was I explained to them when I used all these other tools, when I used chat gpt, when I used Claude, when I used what was the other one I was using? I was using one to create images. That would take me about 45 to 50 minutes to get those outputs out of all those other services whereas using blueberry pie and I didn't. I don't ever wanna pitch,
but I I said, listen. I was able to get all these outputs that you see on my show notes on my latest episode, 12 minutes from start to finish. And I was able to get episode title, episode summary. I got the episode art. I was able to get the transcript, obviously, so I'm able to get the chapter files, say, we'll get audio in audio clips, couple of audio clips set up, and I got
one video clip processing in 12 minutes. So that just I think this the for me, time is money, and this is why we've done what we've done with pi. But I, again, I didn't it's my goal there was to teach. And, of course, I listed all the other services that are out there that are competing with us and and the tools are out there that you can buy commercially that most people are are aware of. So, again, I, you know, had a weird
weird comment. One guy came up and said to me, it wasn't the best session at the show, but it was the best session he'd seen in 2 years. So what what what does that mean? You know? If it wasn't, it should've been the best session at the show and the best thing he'd seen in 2 years. It was really a weird kind of comment, I guess. Was a compliment. I don't know. He said he hand me a card and ran off and said I'll talk to you later. And I was like, oh, that was weird.
So Yeah. Anyway, maybe he was That's funny. Maybe he was an AI bot. Who knows? But, you wanna do another conference? Oh, I would love to. This this got me excited. I think I told you at the show and I told a couple of other people. Like, being around all of these other creators who are excited about creating, I wanna get my shows back to where they were. You know, sometimes just answering podcaster questions all day every day for a living. It's a great job. I enjoy, at the end
of the day, your your podcast out. Yeah. I I really am. Yeah. I will say and, again, not not a plug for our thing, but I really wanna use PIE a lot more because I remember starting out 12 years ago. You would have these, you know, question you know, here's your podcast startup checklist. Yeah. And I was like, I never knew what to put as goal because I always did shows for fun, which is fine. Which is fine. Because
I never really had a goal. And, you know, AI might be the thing to kinda help me develop that goal and understand this is why I'm actually But but but to be honest with you, a a fun having fun is is a is an actual goal. So, you know, not everyone does this for money or for authority or for fame. They do it for the passion, having fun. I've I've always told my audience at at Geek and New Central. I've always said, when this is not when this is not fun anymore, I quit.
Yeah. You know, I base and so far, I'm still having fun. There's been a few times I'm like like, Monday, I got back and maybe you guys have heard the sniple a couple of times. I'm sorry, but I've been fighting head cold. And Monday, I really did not want to do a show. I mean, I I was like, but I'm I'm counting down to 1800, so it's almost like I'm committed now to make sure I hit those you know, make that mark. So I didn't wanna slide the date another day.
So where else can you go as a listener, and where can you find us later this year? Well, we're going to Travelcon. Yes. Travelcon in Tucson, Arizona in mid March. And Kathy and Aaron will be there, maybe even Barry. Podcast Movement Evolution Chicago at the end of March. Apparently, it's Mac and Mike. Podcast show London, England in the end of May. Have you got a passport, Dave? I don't. I really I really should get one. Might be great opportunity there. We don't haven't
picked who's going. Podcast Movement Dallas mid August. So or you may if you wanna go to Dallas, well, you know, we can figure it out. But, yeah, we've got some events there. So Podcast Movement Evolution Chicago, I would say if you're an independent content creator and you're within striking distance of Chicago, like, you can drive over or take the train in or something, might be worthy of the event. I don't know about flying in. Maybe Michigan, Indiana, Ohio,
Illinois, maybe that kind of surrounding area. Okay? It's more of a biz supposed to be more of a quote, unquote business event. So we'll be there and doing the same thing we normally do, talking to podcasters. Yeah. But I think if you have a I don't know. Why don't you talk about I guess, if if you have an event you wanna see us at, I think Mackenzie shared us some contact. Contact the team, send us your pitch. Mackenzie review and share with the team, and, hopefully, we'll see you there.
Yeah. One of the things we're doing is we're starting to revamp our YouTube channel. We're prepping you to be part of that evolution. Yeah. Yeah. We're we're, we we've realized that, you know, our YouTube channel needs some revisions, so we've been talking. And, apparently, everybody said that I should be the one that y'all look at. So, yeah, we're getting me all ready for that. And another thing that we're we're doing is we're gonna be interviewing experts in podcasting.
And, Todd, you're probably gonna be the person doing a lot of those interviews. Yeah. So people could contact you at toddat blueberry.com. And, yeah, just recommend somebody, and we'll we'll dig in and and try and get them on the show. I've got about 5 on the list so far. 5 that have already committed. Yep. And a couple of the one of the people that we've already talked about on the show, Daniel's agreed to come on, and then a few others. So excited to have them on, but, there we
are. It's just kind of a wrap up of our our trip down to it was very chilly in Florida. Yeah. I I froze. I I had 2 long sleeve shirts with me. Everything else was summer wear. I should check the weather. Well, I mean, it's, you know, 12 degrees and colder up where we're at. So Yeah. It was still it was still chilly. You don't expect 50 degree weather in Florida. It's snowing in New Orleans today. So I saw that. My god. Anyway, we're
dating what date this is recorded. But, hey, we wanna thank you for listening to Podcast Insider. You can subscribe to a new episode, and that comes out so you can subscribe because a new episode comes out every Thursday. All you gotta do is go over to podcast insider.com, and you find that subscribe link. Make sure you follow or subscribe the podcast. Dave, thanks for jumping on here with us today for Podcast Insider.
And to everyone else, if you have questions for us, you can drop me an email, [email protected]. Dave, where can I reach you? [email protected]. We try to make it simple. Easy. Everyone, thanks for being here. We'll see you next week on the Podcast Insight. Thanks for joining us. Come back next week. And in the meantime, head to podcast insider.com for more information.
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