Ripped From The Podcast Headlines - Joe Rogan Stays Home

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:05

Welcome to The Circle Sessions featuring the Circle of Experts. The Circle of Experts are Yasmin Robles from Robles Designs, Tonnisha English Amamoo of TJE Communications, and Don The Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, one of the Experts joins me to talk about critical aspects of growing your podcast. We foc focus on marketing, social media, monetization and website design to help you implement all of these together. This week, Don is here with the Circle of Experts. He possesses creative powers beyond those of mere mortals. I first wanna tell you that too.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:41

Don the idea guy rescues those in need of innovative ideas through his brainstorming Sessions. They are at 5 Buck Brainstorms. Don, thanks for joining me again today.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:00:50

How's it going? If I don't tell you about it, who else will?

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:53

Exactly.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:00:54

Well, I guess you for the the announcement.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:57

Exactly. Exactly. So our ripped from the headlines, we get to Circle back on Joe Rogan, who just signed a multiyear deal with Spotify. Yeah. There you go. Your your Your light bulb of it got all yellow going on too. That's good. That yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:15

I just signed a a a renewal contract with Spotify. Joe

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:01:20

Logan, who's I

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:21

Who is I I know. He's an upcoming guy.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:01:25

Well, I hope I hope the little guy gets some help in, in media there. That's I I hope somebody hears about him.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:31

Yeah. Exactly. So we had talked about his scenario, what we thought might happen Knowing his contract was up and we came pretty close on this one, actually, of of what we thought was going to happen that, yeah, his Spotify holds on the exclusive video rights, but, it it's gonna be out everywhere. You you you it's

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:01:53

this is

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:53

gonna be how to pay off.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:01:54

I was surprised Spotify sunk that amount of money in knowing that the podcast revenue is down, and they were looking to get out of This original content thing, but they they're clinging to Joe Rogan Joe Robles, and, you know, if any If any of the original content stuff, he's the most evocative. So maybe that's why they're keeping me. It's kinda the the Howard Stern effect.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:19

Exactly. There's

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:02:19

2 2 kinds of people listening to Howard Stern, the people who love him and the people who hate him. So Joe Rogan Falls into that category.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:26

Joe Rogan falls into that and they're it seems as though media has those people every once in a while, Rush Limbaugh was that way.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:02:34

Yep.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:34

For radio, you either loved him or you hated him, and those that lower those extremes that's why they listen to him. That yeah. Bottom line, you know, so I think I think Rogan has that appeal, and and god bless him, he he pulled it off. I mean and again, he, it's that this did not happen overnight. People People are gonna go, oh, I'm gonna be Joe. I'm gonna be the Joe Rogan site. You got 15, 20 years to invest in it. Sure.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:56

You can. This was well.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:02:57

And and longer when you consider that Joe this Joe Rogan isn't the same Joe Rogan that started out. He was a he used to be on the TV show news radio. He was a stand up. Yeah. Not a great stand up, but he was a decent stand up. Yeah. Then he went into, you know, comedian actor. Mhmm.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:03:15

And then he was TV reality show host, then he was an MMA fighter. I mean, it and now he's a podcast host.

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:22

So Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:03:23

Yeah. That's a lot of invention to go through, and you can't you can't argue his popularity or success. I mean, he's got you found an audience that likes him and and follows him anyway.

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:36

He's probably due for a biography, don't you think, or autobiography?

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:03:41

Which personality? Probably several.

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:43

I don't. I I don't know. I I he's probably do since he's now in his 2nd long term contract with Spotify. He can kinda see at the end of the road, but it's like Well,

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:03:51

I think

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:51

Now I

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:03:52

think, PT Barnum and Ben Franklin both had multiple autobiographies that they wrote. Yeah. Depending on the different parts of their life. So Right. He might be somebody who's into that category.

Brett Johnson [: 00:04:04

Why not?

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:04:04

But his but his terms of his deal are interesting. So Spotify is no longer exclusive. They they certainly weren't willing to shell it out to be all exclusive. You mentioned they have the video stuff, but they're opening up now. He's gonna be on the other platforms. The other Platforms can sell ads against it. Just more money for him. What what was the what's the reported dollar figure?

Brett Johnson [: 00:04:25

The The last I heard was $250,000,000, and just before we started recording, you'd caught an article that said that was probably misrepresented.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:04:32

Well, Spotify so somebody guesstimated the value at the 250.

Brett Johnson [: 00:04:38

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:04:38

And then Spotify said, no. That's not it. Okay. Well, was it 2.40? We know we know it wasn't cheap. We we know it wasn't in the clearance bin. You didn't pick them up at Big Lots. You Yeah. Cracked the checkbook for this, and it's gonna for sure.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:04:51

It's gonna hurt some of your other areas of investment.

Brett Johnson [: 00:04:54

Yeah. And it has to be more than a 150,000,000 you did before. So at least cracking into 200. Yeah. So we're close. Yeah. It's gonna be ball

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:05:01

park fish. Funny that they I didn't, I didn't catch that part of the article. It's funny that you said they had the video exclusivity. Yeah. Spotify wants to be your everything audio, but that's where they sunk the money was in the video exclusivity.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:15

Yeah. Yeah. But I, it's kinda following the form they'll call her. Daddy's kind of in the same way. I think they're they really to me, it looks as though Spotify really wants to be That video player for you. They they recognize that YouTube. They've turned out

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:05:28

where I haven't seen any YouTube. I haven't seen any Spotify video.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:31

I'm not a Spotify Video user either, but it is a thing now. I've had my podcast clients talking about how can I get my video version of the podcast on Spotify? Hi, Lisa. It is it's and I think it was that turning on from YouTube that you can get your, you know, podcast on YouTube music basically, but you can get your Is it

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:05:48

in the app? I guess I mostly use Spotify's web based tool, not the app.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:55

And I've been using the app, and I think it's there, but I'm not. When I'm in Spotify, I'm not in video mode.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:06:01

Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:02

So it's that, okay, they're going to educate over time to watch video.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:06:06

Spotify had launched A new utility that when you played a song by default, it was opening up this This other panel, the now playing view.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:17

Mhmm. Okay.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:06:18

Do you were are you familiar with what I'm talking about?

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:20

Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Okay.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:06:21

So it opened up this right panel, and I'm And I'm talking about the web browser version.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:26

Okay. You

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:06:27

play the song. It opened up a right panel version that's down in the player are there's a little icon there that looks like a a video play button, and it showed you the, the album art, And gave credits and gave it next in queue.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:44

Mhmm.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:06:44

So it was this now playing view, which I didn't like because it took up The screen away from my playlist, and I I didn't need it. Mhmm. So I would keep turning it off. Well, once you log out, It turns it back on again. You can't turn it off in your profile. You can't do it. I've reached out to tech support. It's not possible.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:07:03

But with you saying that people are seeing it in seeing video now, that's gonna be the logical place for it to show up.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:10

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:07:10

So that may be why I can't turn it off.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:14

Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:07:14

Yeah. That's interesting. That explains a lot.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:17

It's in the design. Right. Well, you know yeah. So caller daddy is in the news with Spotify as well too, so all these contracts are coming up at the same time. And then at the same time, SiriusXM is upping their podcast and digital game by signing a multiyear agreement with the you know, both you you're in my one of my favorite podcasts podcast.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:07:35

To hear about that. Yeah. Those guys need more money too.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:38

Yeah. I guess. Exactly. But I mean, they're all

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:07:41

successful actors on their own. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then they, On a fluke, they decide to just jump on the phone and shoot the shoot the bull.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:51

Hoo Exactly.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:07:52

They start bringing in I know. They're buddies as surprise guests, and it's a genuinely like, it's 3 guys sitting around having fun talking to each other.

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:02

Yeah. My 3 brothers making fun of them. 3 brothers making fun of themselves. Bottom line, it's that you're ready for each one just to crack each other up and just Yeah. You know, you're waiting for on each other.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:08:14

They're ripping each other apart.

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:16

It's just great.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:08:17

Yeah. Did you watch the documentary on Prime?

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:19

I did not. Yeah. It it's on the list

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:08:21

to do it. It's gone because with this new deal because the last deal was with Amazon.

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:27

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:08:28

So with this new deal, I don't know if primary retains the rights, so watch it

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:31

before they take it down.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:08:32

They shot it all in black and white. It's very documentary, but now it's behind the scenes, and they're still just as funny. Like, the smallest part of the documentary is the episode itself.

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:43

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:08:43

Because you can listen to the full episode in their podcast. Mhmm. But all the behind the scenes stuff, like, when they're in the hotel and they're ordering room Circle, And one of them is ripping on the other one about how much he's eating, like, oh my god. You're eating again? Did they're they're definitely brothers Just Yeah. Ripping each other apart.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:00

And I guess when I got

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:09:01

our amusement.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:02

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Because when I got hooked on it, I just didn't realize how those 3 even knew each other. And and it starts to, you know, you gotta go back, back, back, and then kinda realize, oh, they work together here, they work together here, that kind of thing. And And and, I think a lot of people in Hollywood know each other behind the scenes. They didn't necessarily have to work together, but it's you did know they had a relationship. So yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:09:23

Like, the the wives are friends of Somebody else that they knew. Like, they just kept showing up at different things.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:28

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:09:28

I mean, 2 of them were were on

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:32

Oh, wow.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:09:33

Yeah. What was the sitcom together? Oh. Our research staff did not Our

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:39

our listener our listeners are shouting out Come on. Yeah. We all we all know what we're talking about. So yeah. Exactly.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:09:44

Yeah. Jason Bateman.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:45

Yeah. Well, then then they they cross pollinated on other other shows too. The the other long form, it wasn't a comedy, but it was, that other Robles I could grieve. We come prepared folks. We come professional

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:09:57

Arrested development was the

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:58

Yes. Arrested development. Thank you. And, and and and, but, yeah, I I I just I think they're good combination. We even talked about too that You know, you can also take a, you know, a note from their playbook about how they do ads as well too. Yes. They run a lot of them together,

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:10:14

but the ads are pretty Too many of them.

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:17

But they're pretty good. They're pretty good if you take a note going, okay, this is how you do it, but maybe not as many in a row and maybe not as long.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:10:26

In our pre show conversation we covered. They are some of the best podcast ads that are out there. That's just not saying much because there's some really bad podcast ads out there.

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:39

Bar is not that high. Right?

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:10:41

They do the reads themselves. Mhmm. They are they can't help but be funny in it. Yeah. The pro there's just they're back to back to back. There's what? 4 or 5 ads. It's gotta be 4 or 5 ads. Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:10:53

And I give up, like, you kept you catch me on the first one, like, okay, fine. And then it goes to the next one, and then I remember, oh, god. Yeah. We're gonna be here a minute, And then I I just skip them. And I don't understand why they don't if they would sprinkle those through the show, same number of ads, same exact number of ads, Just don't play them in a block. Yeah. I would listen to them rather than jumping. Just okay.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:11:18

Fine. It's gonna play through. It's 15 seconds long, But some of their ads are a minute. Yeah. Minimum 30. Some of them are a minute, and it's way too much. You're talking about Iheart Radio level of ad blocks.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:33

Yeah. 12, 15 minute blocks of yeah. That field. Exactly. I would like to know, and I don't know whether this has ever been discussed or out there that, you know, how people listen to this show, this podcast of smart list. Is it is it a binge situation, or is it a when a new one's out they listen? Yeah. It would be interesting to know because I know we took a a trip out to Colorado, we mentioned before the show of taking her daughter to Colorado, and we will listen to Smartlist most of the way. And that was a binge situation.

Brett Johnson [: 00:12:00

So you really got tired of the ads. They didn't flavor it up, you know, they're they're and some of it was digitally inserted because it was Heimly, you could tell that it was part of the season, so they're inserting, but it's that I'm

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:12:11

a skipper. I skipped them. Yeah. I know. Now I I listen to them Depending on the guest. So I'll I get the alert that there's a new episode. I see who the guest is. If it's a guest I'm interested in, I download it and save it to, a playlist, and then it's just a matter of Prioritizing what else I have in the playlist and when I know I'm gonna have the time to listen to it because it's an hour long show.

Brett Johnson [: 00:12:38

Minimum hour.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:12:38

Right. Yeah. So that's, For me, that's a day commute. So half hour to the office, half half hour back, I can listen to the entire episode. Yeah. Now you brought up a good, example of the binge listening. My wife and I listen to different types of music in the car, So we don't always like to listen to the same station or the same CDs. So I tried, listening to podcasts.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:13:07

Mhmm. And we could agree on Smartless as a podcast. So we probably listened to 4 or 5 episodes on, road trip on our last vacation. So Nice. It was an easy It was an easy thing to put on there and play them back to back. We definitely pick the guests that we both liked.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:26

Right. That would be the common ground there. Would you exactly. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:13:28

Do Do you wanna hear it with this person?

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:31

Yep.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:13:31

But, yeah, it's a great road trip.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:33

Yeah. Yeah. It is.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:13:34

They're funny, and I they are one of the only things where I literally laugh out Loud. Yes. And when I'm in my car by myself during a commute, the drivers passing me think I'm insane because I am just head back, Open mouth guffawing about they're they cracked me up. They're hysterical.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:54

They're good. So that you know, it's a good that's a good pickup for SiriusXM because I know They've changed their app. I think they're really moving out of the satellite feel to it and into the phone. They know where it's kinda going. So they've changed their app on the phone. It's still clunky. They've they've messed around with it too much, but they realize they have to, I think, look at the future of how Sirius XM is being used. It's not moving away from satellite.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:21

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:14:22

I mean, if they Have I even heard that it's gonna be exclusive to them. Have you? Maybe they can exclusively sell the ads.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:32

Yeah. I

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:14:32

think think they'd wanna block listeners. I don't think they wanna block an audience.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:36

Yeah. I don't think it's that. It it I think it's some I think, again, it's Rev share a little bit of that, and and there's a lot of little pieces to it. I have to read it again, but I think it's it's it's an interesting move how SiriusXM is now kinda cranked up with crime junkie pod save America, Conan O'Brien needs a friend. They're they're getting some names, so they're they're they're trying to be a serious player with it now. They get it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:14:57

Yeah. But But recruiting a podcast creating a podcast content, branch is different than Show exclusivity, where they can prove that when they hired Howard Howard Stern exclusively for a serious Broadcast show. They can show that they got their their, subscriber counts up. Yeah. Whether they could retain them or not, that's a different thing, but they definitely got people trying them out. I don't know that a podcast will do that.

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:32

I don't know.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:15:33

Unless you're a level of well, no. But even, even, our boy, Joe Rogan was an exclusive. You could still subscribe to his podcast. Now it might offer exclusivity for selling the ads in it. Maybe the ads are exclusive.

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:50

Right. Right. You know? Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's what they're talking about. I think at least, you know, I

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:15:55

hope so because if I can't listen to it because it's on Serious. Mhmm. I'm not gonna become a serious subscriber. No. No. Won't be listening to

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:05

Yeah. Well and and and what's interesting though is too is that they SiriusXM as well as Spotify then Spotify has failed at this miserably at creating podcast. They're buying them, but they're not creating them. They've put all these press and that's okay. It just comes down to, okay, they're just gobbling up Good one. SiriusXM is, you know, they didn't create Crime Junkie and Pod Save America and Conan O'Brien. They're just buying talent, and that's okay. To be a studio.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:16:32

You know what I

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:32

mean? Right. And they're not designed to be a studio. People.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:16:35

Yeah. I'm wonder, I forget the name of the group that, Smartlist was originally in. It was wonder,

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:43

yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:16:43

Wonder videos, something like

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:45

that. Yes. Wondery, Wondery, Wondery.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:16:47

Wondery. Mhmm. So I think they were going to people and saying, Hey, you wanna make a podcast? And then they would help them produce the podcast.

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:55

Correct.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:16:55

And obviously Netflix and Amazon have both created studios. There's Amazon Studios, and there's Netflix Studios, where they're creating original content, But they dipped their toe. I you know, originally, they were just they were just a a place where they collected that stuff Mhmm. And broadcast it. And then they said, Oh, wait. You guys are producing that? Why don't we buy the exclusive broadcast rights from you? And now it's a Netflix exclusive, And I you know, they could even call it a Netflix production because they helped paid for some of it, but they weren't the studio that was hiring the writer and hiring they were producing Everything themselves, they were in a studio until more recently, and that's the thing they're backing off of now. That's the first thing to go. They're backing off of the original content.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:44

Right. Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:17:45

Yeah. So I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. I I like what Spotify was doing with They're they're they described it as Spotify audio series. Mhmm. There was a Batman podcast for a while that was like a old school radio shows.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:00

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:18:00

And that was kinda fun. We actually remarked on a past episode where Yeah. I was on Max, HBO Max, and Marvel? Played something that I thought was a Flash. Yeah. Animate, animated show, and it ended up being a Flash podcast. They did a lousy job of telling people what that was, but the idea of Taking that content because they have all the DC movies on Max and and putting it in there that was smart. Mhmm. Content wise, The presentation and promotion of it was a horrible fail.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:27

Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So so yeah. I I think that's interesting, and and, you know, and and like we said, I think they're recognizing that they're not a production studio, they're just we're gonna get it out because of of the number of of subscribers, listeners, that sort of thing. So yeah. Which is good.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:41

You had, come across I I I completely missed this. It's called Passionfruit. Talk talk a little bit about that.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:18:50

Yeah. Passion fruit. Passion, p a s s I o n, but fruit is spelled f r o o t. You have show notes or something. Right? Can't you link this up?

Brett Johnson [: 00:19:01

Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Show notes. Oh, yeah. For sure.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:19:03

It's passionfruit.me, so Let's make it really hard to get to weird spelling and a weird domain.

Brett Johnson [: 00:19:09

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:19:09

But the cool thing is this is a Community that is created that appeals to creators and brands of just about any kind of content. So if you've got a newsletter, you got a podcast, you have an event, you have a blog, and you have an audience that You want to make available for brands to pitch sponsorships to, this is a great place to set up A media kit page. They have an impressive tool that it's not I like it because it's not fancy. It is pretty straightforward, but it's visually appealing. It's nice and neat and follows a format with it's almost a portfolio of creators, And you can only change so many things on the page, which is nice, for somebody who might be a brand who's looking for these things because you get Content blocks where you can tell them about you, the creator, and you can list brands with logos and links of, Previous brand partnerships you've done promotions with. And then they've got the sections where you break it down based on your audience. Like, If you've got a newsletter, you can tell them what your open rate is, what your subscriber count is, click through rates. Literally list a menu of the things they can buy inside your newsletter, then you have another piece about your YouTube channel, you know, your subscribers and your views and the ad viewing time.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:20:35

I just think it's really cool. There's a there's a, get in touch button on there that opens up a very Calendly like, meeting thing where you can set up a time to to get in touch. You can just send a message through to reach out to the creator, so there's some Gatekeeping going on. The only thing that they don't have clearly labeled on the website is cost. So you can

Brett Johnson [: 00:20:59

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:20:59

They have the the button that says get started for Free, but I can't find a price plan on this website anywhere. Yeah. But you can get started for free.

Brett Johnson [: 00:21:08

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:21:09

Free. And then I'm sure they hit the upgrade. I don't know if it's a a membership, flat membership where you're paying a fee. I don't know if it's a cut. They're taking Tonnisha off of any gigs that are booked through it. Mhmm. That's unclear, and they ought to be more transparent about it. But the overall impression of the site For me, it was really, really positive.

Brett Johnson [: 00:21:30

Yeah. It's it's neat. It's got nice nice click buttons to to go through. I think if nothing else, it's a great research tool that you can kinda go and Okay. This this the example we'll give you is, you know, Steve the bartender, video and podcast, and and you can see his stats in regards to the click through, the open rate, and what he's actually charging for a classified ad or 3 ads and such. So it's kind of a you look at it going, oh, Okay. My newsletter is not there, but he's asking for that. I could do this, you know, sort of thing.

Brett Johnson [: 00:22:00

So I would think, you know, the price point, it's gotta be competitive with with a Patreon feel or those other platforms, so this is much cleaner and nicer look. But I would think the the pricing somehow, maybe it's a a a scale of do at this level and, We we take x amount of percentage, but if you if you pay us, we'll take this percentage of every sale or something like that.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:22:23

Yeah. This is definitely gonna bear some Yeah. Further investigation for me because I I've got some clients that I could point to this as potential, revenue generation.

Brett Johnson [: 00:22:33

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:22:34

And I just like The way it comes across, I I hope it's not too punitive. I hope they take a fair share, but not more than what's fair. I don't see them doing a lot of promoting of the site itself. I'd like to see them doing some paid promotion to bring in sponsors. I haven't seen any ads for these guys inside of the sponsorship, newsletters, the sponsorship periodicals, you know, kind of the industry free stuff. I haven't seen them saying, hey hey, brands. Are you looking for are you looking for, content creators? I wish they were doing more of that. I'd really like to see them actively bringing in an audience for these creators because that would really put it over the top value wise.

Brett Johnson [: 00:23:19

Yeah. They would. Exactly. So yeah. I'll do some digging on as well. If nothing else, go through the process of just getting some price point because it's that it's really interesting. It is like you said, as long as it Yasmine cost too much, and it, you know, it's you gotta be at a certain level to take a look at this. Yep.

Brett Johnson [: 00:23:33

But but talk about some really good examples about How to do it right? If you're can try to do it on your own of of the look and and trying to sell it on your own. But, yeah, that's it's good stuff. So passion for

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:23:42

I'd also like to see them locally promote The revenue they've generated for creators. You know, just put a ticker on the website that, you know, with a money meter Mhmm. That would be another Proof of concept. You don't have to go into releasing how much you made for each creator.

Brett Johnson [: 00:23:58

Mhmm.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:23:59

But to be able to say you generate over $1,000,000 in revenue for creators, That would be impressive.

Brett Johnson [: 00:24:04

Yes. It would be.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:24:04

Yeah. I hope it's not something they just created, and it's just sitting out there rotting. I hope this passion fruit isn't just rotting on the vine.

Brett Johnson [: 00:24:11

Here you go. I knew Here you go with it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:24:14

Hey. Thank you very much. You're all welcome.

Brett Johnson [: 00:24:16

There there you go. There you go. Exactly. Well, I did an episode of the Circle Sessions Couple weeks ago, I guess it's been as as we published this one, talking about some radio stuff. Now you and I have that radio background. We bring radio in occasionally because we We we pretty much we know what we're talking about.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:24:34

Plea they need the help.

Brett Johnson [: 00:24:35

Yeah. That they need the help. Exactly. But There is a proposal out right now. The FCC is proposing to reward stations to provide local originated programming to provide at least 3 hours per week on average. Now, so the background of this is that radio stations have to reapply for the license every 7 years. And in that process, the FCC asks for their their good stuff. What have you done? What have you done for the community? It still has that feel of, okay, We'll grant you this license because the FCC owns the airwaves.

Brett Johnson [: 00:25:08

Basically, the, you know, that frequency you listen to, the FCC says we'll allow you to have that from us, but you have to be a community partner. You have to do the right stuff for your community. So the process is not the easiest to go through. It takes a little bit of time. And what they're proposing is that, that to move forward with a proposal that would, bestow benefits on broadcasters that invest in locally originated programming more than what they're already asked to do. And if they're asked minimally, it's probably 30 minutes to an hour a week, to give back to community. That's why you hear this public affair programs. That's what that is, that, you know, they're not getting sponsors for it, it's that give back.

Brett Johnson [: 00:25:45

They're talking to people in the community, and and typically those show shows are at 5 o'clock in the morning, 6 o'clock in the morning. FCC doesn't care you've done what you're supposed to do or you hear PSAs during the day. So, you know, the although the FCC has said that programming does not have to be locally originated to have interest or value to audiences in any particular community, the rule making says that the idea That local programming is not valuable enough to warrant the commission attention that goes too far, and so it it it it concludes a programming containing at least some locally sourced Content is most likely to be responsive to local concerns. Now what they're saying is that if you up the number of hours that you give to your local community per week, They will push the process of approving your license even faster. So if that's a deal for the station, they just, you know, it's like, hey, I'll give you 2, 3 hours a week, just get my get my docket through. I wanna get approved to get going. So what I saw of this is if there are local stations on a very local level that possibly are gonna go, okay, let's do 3 hours of Circle. But they don't have the personnel to produce local.

Brett Johnson [: 00:26:51

It could be an opening for podcasters on a very local level. Maybe you have a local podcast. Your your your content is local. If this goes through, maybe there's a local station that wants to fill in 3 hours. There's a lot of dots to connect with this, but the potential's there. Maybe. I I I bring it to the attention going, okay, we talked about it in in February of 2024. And we can always go back to it in a year's time going, see, We were smarty pants.

Brett Johnson [: 00:27:18

We knew what we're doing here and talking about it. So the potential's there. I don't you know, if it were come to fruition, Would a radio station pay a podcaster for the, you know, to fill an hour? Probably not. But there are benefits there are benefits being on a radio station though.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:27:34

For the podcaster

Brett Johnson [: 00:27:36

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:27:36

The radio station is not gonna do this. I the radio stations that could benefit from the local Content angle are the radio stations that are actually local and are already doing this. They already have a local DJ. They're already doing local events or coverage of those events that they can add up and say, yeah, that equaled 3 hours. I don't think I don't think those guys are gonna bring in some another person, a podcaster, an outside group that they're going to have to Somehow give them a monetary incentive to do this, either it's time on their air that cost them money, Or they gotta pay that person or the podcaster's gonna come in with their own sponsor that they wanna mention during Their additional local coverage. I don't know if the local group's gonna do it because they don't need it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:28:25

They don't

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:28:25

need it. The other side of this is the large Conglomerates of radio stations that that, we're already happy that The FCC got rid of the main studio rule that said that they had to have a local studio in communities they served. I don't think they're gonna do this because they're doing the weekend 3 AM thing. If they have to serve that local community, put it on at 3 o'clock in the morning because it's usually boring city council crap That nobody want that legitimately, nobody wants to listen to that. Right. Right. And I get why they bury it because nobody cares about Got it. And they're fulfilling their obligation by doing that.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:29:06

I so those guys already have a a workaround for this to say, well, okay. Let's just Let's add another 30 minutes onto our weekly 2 hour broadcast. That'll bring us that'll let let us meet the 3 hour monthly one, and now we'll qualify for this. So This is a lot of sound and fury that that doesn't equal anything. I don't understand why they're doing it. Yeah. They know Who their members are. They know who the FCC stations.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:29:33

They're they know they're not gonna do this. I I don't get it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:29:36

Yeah. I don't understand why it's come to Other than the deadlock of going through and they're trying to appease radio stations going, hey, we'll work with you. Why why would they give I don't understand the the the genesis of this. I'm just looking at the potential outcome, but I I've worked with 2 on air, you know, with 2 very very I mean, I don't even think you classify it as small market radio stations. I would call it teeny market radio stations, honestly, but but they super serve their local county, they do or the or the city and that sort of thing.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:30:06

Well, those guys are already doing it though.

Brett Johnson [: 00:30:08

They are, but they're also underpaying their people, And I think if they're looking at adding more public service hours, you can only air so many PSA's to equal an hour, that sort of thing, but I think they're talking long form. I I I I could see where the tiny markets might be looking at. Okay. This would be nice. I need to do more community. This is what I am. This side I'm I'm the old school broadcaster. I wanna do as much local programming as I can.

Brett Johnson [: 00:30:33

I do all the Circle baseball games, basketball, football. I make a boatload of money doing the local local local. Maybe this is a great way to do another an hour of local because we have a local podcaster that Yeah. But they're

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:30:45

doing all that local. They They already ran out the meter. They're not getting extra credit for running more hours a little

Brett Johnson [: 00:30:52

bit. Right. They're not. I mean, well, the basketball I mean, the sports stuff is not in public affairs. That's not a public affairs deal. I mean, they're getting paid for it. This is something that you're

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:31:00

giving the air time away. Take that column to say Local content, they don't care. FCC doesn't care.

Brett Johnson [: 00:31:05

I don't know. I I I I've never heard when I was in and it's been a while since I've been in radio, so the rules can change, of course, but I've not heard that you could put in that you gay you that that a basketball game could classify as public affairs because you got paid for it. That is a cash cow for teeny markets, small markets. It's basketball, football, this local sports. I mean, it is a cash cow. So there I don't think the FCC could consider it giving Did they

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:31:31

say they can't get paid for it? I didn't see they couldn't get paid for it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:31:34

I'm assuming it's it's it's No. But I don't know. Again, it's it's the weird weirdest

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:31:40

Local content doesn't mean free content. Local content doesn't mean ad that it's not ad supported content.

Brett Johnson [: 00:31:45

It's and it's possible. I don't again, it didn't have the definition of local programming. It's that I think it's still up for Robles. Spell spell it's still up for discussion. So that's a docket up, say, Hey, we're considering this. We want input. So you're right. It could go that direction.

Brett Johnson [: 00:31:59

You're right. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:32:00

This is the answer to, And I don't know. Yeah. This is pure theory. This is some group in the public, Of of the of the public who goes to the FCC and goes, I'm losing somebody took my local station. I don't have a local station anymore. And I'm complaining because you guys are given these license. You're let these corporate radio stations come in, and now nobody's covering the news in my area. They're all coming out of Los Angeles and New York.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:32:31

And what are you gonna do about the fact that the FCC was supposed to serve my local airwaves? And the FCC goes, well, we're gonna take Steps to make sure you get the local coverage you deserve, community member, and they go, hey, let's make this new rule Where if you just add another hour of your programming, we can say we added 3,000 more hours of local programming in all these different in total in mass, and this will quiet the public outcry because we can say, look look, we got more people. We're We're, we're incentivizing them to add more local coverage in your community. Look what we're doing. Look. Look. Look. And that's what that press release is for.

Brett Johnson [: 00:33:11

That makes sense. That and it does. No. For sure. Then and then the other side of it is the carrot leading the station going, and we'll put your application on top of the pile and get

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:33:20

you through.

Brett Johnson [: 00:33:21

Yeah. What's

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:33:21

What's that mean? Like, you weren't gonna send it through, like, to do it a week sooner than before?

Brett Johnson [: 00:33:26

Right. And that that's true too. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. It's There's a lot of new ones that are weird.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:33:30

Slow down. Yeah. I mean, there's no other incentive other than you you get premium.

Brett Johnson [: 00:33:36

Right. Cross the truth. Unless you're on the edge of not doing the right stuff anyway. You know? That you had barks against you the and and and and at that bar is not, Yeah. I think it's so cool. It is. And I I I thought it was interesting of just like, okay. It's worth a comment.

Brett Johnson [: 00:33:52

If it happens, maybe there's opportunity, but probably not.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:33:55

I gave you some line.

Brett Johnson [: 00:33:57

Exactly. No. And who knows? I just thought, okay, this is interesting, but at the same time, you know, It's it goes back to that conversation we've had many times about, okay, that is one opportunity for a podcaster to get exposure is on radio, And maybe this is an opportunity. Maybe.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:34:12

Maybe. If if a podcaster wants to try and use this As a window or a door to slide into getting coverage on traditional? Absolutely. If you think you can use this advantage, go ahead. I'll give you one idea right now. If you put together a podcast about things to do in your community and you package it up and just go, oh, I'm gonna have my own little radio show. It's gonna be things to do in Delaware, Ohio. And every week, I'm gonna record, 15 minutes on what to do in Delaware, Ohio, and they can run it Four times a week, so they've got an hour, and they can run it at 2 o'clock in the morning. And the radio station gets to sell an advertiser around it, Marathon gasoline or 711 sponsors what to do in town at 3 o'clock in the morning.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:34:59

Yeah. If you wanna create content for the radio station to air for free, and get paid to put an advertiser on it, Absolutely. Create local content all day long. Yeah. As long as all you want out of it is your voice and maybe your name on the radio because you're not gonna get paid for it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:35:17

Right? Yeah. No. I don't I don't it's the connections that the radio station can offer, but, yeah, they're not gonna at at that teeny station level that I was talking about, the money's not there. No. It is the exposure point and possibly access to their Salesforce that they might have.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:35:31

And the big guys won't sell it. Yeah. No. We'll be there. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:35:34

So No. No.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:35:36

It's pure exposure, and even Yeah. People die from exposure.

Brett Johnson [: 00:35:44

Oh, we could go. Man, I like that. Wow. That's a good blog topic.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:35:49

Oh, I wish I could claim credit For that, it's just as a designer as a graphic designer, you constantly get people going, oh, well, you know, I can't afford to pay anything for this project, but You're gonna get great exposure from this. Well, I can't pay my rent with exposure. I've tried, you get arrested for exposing yourself. Did you know that? And you You you can't, people die for exposure. Nice. That's the one. People die for exposure, and the other is Exposing yourself is against the law. So when people offer you exposure, return for your services, don't do it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:36:23

I love it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:36:24

It's a horrible price.

Brett Johnson [: 00:36:25

I love it. Well, I was just having a conversation with my daughter about, you know, giving away free I I I printed this off about, you know, sorry. The quote is how to politely say, Sorry, I'm not doing that for free. And for option, it it it it it's not as brash as what you just said, but I love what you're doing with it too, but it's that same mindset of like, you know what? There's a time and a place for free, but at the same time, that time and place is done. You know? It's rare. It's rare anymore. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:36:51

More rare than The people asking you for the free stuff will admit.

Brett Johnson [: 00:36:55

Exactly.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:36:55

Yeah. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:36:56

I mean No. But anyway so, you just came up with a great idea in regards to going to a radio station, you know, if that's where you wanna go with it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:37:05

So you got tons of package it up for them, package it up. Right.

Brett Johnson [: 00:37:08

So you got tons of other ideas. How They wanna pick your brain how to get ahold of you to do just that as a podcaster.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:37:15

Well, they can go to my website at don the idea guy dot com and pay me For a brainstorm. I I you paid brainstorms. I don't do exposure.

Brett Johnson [: 00:37:23

Right. Exactly. Exactly. And and and honestly, looks, I've known Don A very long time, and you will get your money's worth from that brainstorm session. Honestly, do do

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:37:33

you feel like it was worth it?

Brett Johnson [: 00:37:35

Yeah. Exactly. The Exposure will be worth it to him to work with him to get the ideas. You'll walk away with something. He'll get your brain going and thinking about things seriously.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:37:46

About making money. I want my clients to make money too. Exactly. That's what we do. We do. It's

Brett Johnson [: 00:37:50

Yep. It is. It is exactly

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:37:52

wanna make your business more successful. That's Yeah. That's why Brett put together this this podcast with the Circle of ex Experts. You know, me and My other compadres, you know, we're putting in our our weekly time periods. We wanna help out the audience. We wanna help the listeners make more money, And by doing so, we're demonstrating our expertise.

Brett Johnson [: 00:38:11

Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:38:11

You know, this is this is not a the goodness of our heart. Brett didn't go, you know what? I got an extra Couple hours a week, I think I'll just record myself and and put it out there because why not?

Brett Johnson [: 00:38:22

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:38:23

No. His wife is outside his studio right now going, Brett, please pay attention to me. Why aren't you talking to me? Right. Let me be a guest on your podcast. It's more

Brett Johnson [: 00:38:30

like the dog. The

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:38:32

dog. I got a cat over here doing the same thing.

Brett Johnson [: 00:38:34

Dog is more of

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:38:35

that way. Making its own appearance.

Brett Johnson [: 00:38:36

Exactly. And, you know, if you get a podcast that, you're doing or you're about ready to start to do, give me a shout. We do some podcast audits. So if you got one started and it's not really doing what you want it to do, let's get you into a podcast audit. We'll take a listen to it, bring Dawn along as well, and give you our our our view of and our listen to that podcast. And you're probably almost there. You just need some tweaks. We we can give you the insight.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:38:58

Let's, Hey, Brett. Why don't we do a A Circle of Experts series here. We've been doing these from the headlines and they're fun. I I enjoy doing them a lot.

Brett Johnson [: 00:39:07

Yeah. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:39:07

But why don't we schedule Some of our episodes to be a podcast brainstorm.

Brett Johnson [: 00:39:13

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:39:14

So set up some form where people can submit their podcast and the Robles they're running into Mhmm. Either breaking through with listeners or generating revenue, and let's do Let's record a brainstorm episode.

Brett Johnson [: 00:39:27

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:39:28

Let's pick let's pick some good ones, that apply to a lot of people And because everybody's running into the same problem. How do how do I grow my audience? How do I make money? Yeah. How do I produce it? How long should I do it before? Like, everybody has the exact same question. Let's let's do some of these.

Brett Johnson [: 00:39:45

Yeah. That sounds good. I like that idea. Yep. Yep. Coming up. You heard her here first. So inside track, you know, what's going on.

Brett Johnson [: 00:39:50

So, Oh, yeah. Good.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:39:50

I'll do it for the exposure.

Brett Johnson [: 00:39:52

Exactly. Before before the weather gets too hot. Exactly.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:39:56

Exactly. Whenever we do an exposure Whenever we do an exposure episode, you have to play stripper music in the background.

Brett Johnson [: 00:40:01

Oh, okay. I'm I don't know if I have asked

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:40:04

for that, but I'll find something.

Brett Johnson [: 00:40:06

Yeah. I'll find out something. Shut up. We just aged ourselves good time on

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:40:12

that one.

Brett Johnson [: 00:40:15

Oh, listener, thank you. We

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:40:17

don't do it for free. Bring a bunch of ones. Bring a bunch of singles for the brainstorm episode.

Brett Johnson [: 00:40:22

Please do. Please do. Exactly. Thanks for listening, and we will, we'll have another episode soon, but we'll we'll bring that idea along. Thanks for listening to The Circle Sessions.