Hello, and welcome to Community Case Studies.
I'm your host.
My name is Seth Resler, and this is a look at how belonging is really built.
On this show, we talk to real community builders, people who are actually doing the work to find out how they are putting community building principles into practice.
My guest today is the podcast editor for some of the biggest indie personal finance podcast, podcasts like Stacking Benjamins, Afford Anything, and the MilMo show.
He also created the Podcast Editors Club.
This is the world's largest and most diverse group of podcast editors, and he cofounded the Podcast Editor Academy.
That is an educational and support resource that helps individuals build their own podcast services and businesses.
Welcome, Steve Stewart.
Wow.
Thank you for that.
That's It's so lucky.
Can I tell you something? I have been a radio broadcaster for thirty years, and I have never had an opportunity to use cheesy sound effects.
And so now that I have a podcast, Uh, that's that's what I'm doing.
Welcome.
Thank you to the for being on the show.
It's my pleasure.
This is gonna be a great conversation.
Yeah.
I wanna talk to you about the podcast editors' club specifically.
Tell me a little bit about it.
What is it? And You know, what's the history? How did it form? Yeah.
Let's just start from there.
I so I started editing podcasts professionally in 2016.
And by 2017, I was like, there's not this there's not a community out there for People like me.
All I wanna talk about is the post production side.
We've got all these communities and Facebook groups and things like that for podcasters to learn about podcasting.
But where is the community that talks about the post production side that isn't you know, really high level audio engineering people.
I want podcast editors.
We do content editing.
We do audio engineering too.
So I just decided there wasn't a group out there? I guess I should start it.
I did.
I invited a couple of people that I knew were editing shows and it's grown ever since.
So it was really it was a need that I had.
And now it's it's like people look at me at, like, it's like some kind of a expert or leader.
I just I'm one of them.
I just facilitate the conversations online.
So I find this so interesting because often when we talk to people who build community or launch communities the way that you did, often there's nothing and they decide to go out and start something.
But Some of the ways that communities come up in fact very frequently is that there is there's a larger group and that larger group kinda grows so big that then subgroups start to emerge.
And you and I have been around long enough that we remember the early days of, for example, the podcast movement conference or podcast.
And back in those early days, they weren't that many podcasters.
So they were all excited to get together, and now we live in a world where everybody's got a podcast.
And you start to see the subgroups emerge.
I mean, we've seen, for example, women in podcasting or podcasters of color or or various things in one of the ways, the subgroup that you have is is by role.
People who are interested in that post production element, that editing element.
And so I think that's that's so fascinating.
Can you talk a little bit about how this emerged as a subgroup from, uh, you know, the larger podcasting community? Yeah.
It's just like you said, it's something that is is part of a bigger thing, you know, podcasting is a huge thing when you think about all the pieces.
If you're if you're doing a show yourself, like I was doing, you're doing everything.
You're coming up with the ideas.
You're trying to contact guests.
You're doing the recordings.
You might do the, you know, editing and everything yourself.
And you gotta market the thing? I mean, come on.
It's a lot of work.
So there's all these separate little roles within that bigger one.
And when I decided to start the group, it was because I only wanted to talk about the post production side.
I've got rules in the Facebook group.
You know, you can have the, uh, the membership rules and all that stuff, uh, flags and things.
So if anybody starts talking about podcasting topics, like, hey, how do I find guests, or how do I get, you know, grow my audience, things like that? It flags it, and it doesn't let that post go.
Plus, I'm monitoring it all the time just because I like to be in the group myself and seeing if the content is if the posts are are in conversations are focused on what we're talking about.
The post production side.
So we all in that group.
I yeah.
I even tell people at the beginning when they sign up, you know, hey.
You when you're here, you put on your podcast editor hat.
You take off your podcast or hat, and you put on your podcast editor hat.
And that kind of differentiates the conversations and keeps it focused.
It also makes that group very, very unique, and it makes it more valuable in my mind because it's not the jack of all trades.
It's specific to the post production side and how we can as podcast editors and managers and producers serve our clients well.
So there's a bit of a business support aspect in there as well.
K.
So when I work with clients, we talk about, you know, at the very beginning.
The first thing you've gotta do is really identify the shared mission of your community members? Why are they coming together? What are they trying to do? And what do they get out of doing that with other people who are trying to do the same thing? And you sort of touched on this that, obviously, it's podcast editors who are getting together to talk about post production And and why? It's about serving their clients better.
Are they trying to build their own business? Are you talking about things where it's just technology? Hey, this platform does this, or how do you do this? Or is it also things like here's how you grow your business? Here's how you get more clients, so on and so forth.
Yes.
Yes to all the above.
It's it's about how do I solve this problem? Somebody can come in and ask that question.
Uh, hey, what's the what's better of the three or something like that? So if they're talking about the software that they're using or Uh, then it is.
Hey, I have we had a quote a question the other day from someone who's like, hey, I have this client who wants this.
These three things, you know, this is somebody who's they're trying to to get on as a client.
So it's a a lead generation thing that we're working on.
Came to me and they said, well, this, this, and this, I don't understand what this means.
Can you guys give me some insight? Now he could've went to that potential client and asked the question.
Hey, what do you mean by professional? But he went to the group to get some ideas before he starts to talk to the potential client to say, what do you mean by professional? Because there could be a lot of different ways that those things could be serve perceived, but going in armed with the knowledge or at least maybe even understanding where that person's coming from.
It's just something that you wouldn't get from, you know, from from well, not asking the question in the first place, but then there's some other groups where you're gonna get answers all over the place.
Like, oh, you shouldn't be doing that.
You know, no.
What's the answer to this question? So we're solving problems in there.
And and it's, uh, you know, the community has has a lot of collaboration in there, a lot of people helping each other, which I think is fantastic.
So that's the shared mission of your community.
Uh, I often distinguish that from the business purpose of community.
I mean, the shared mission is what all of your members are in it for.
But why are you as the host running this community? And and when you started, was it about? Generating revenue or creating a business around it, um, or was it something different in the beginning? And has that business purpose evolved over time? It's still the same for me.
As far as the fay it's the podcast artists club is primarily a Facebook group.
Now it's a club.
It could be you know, online anywhere.
I actually used to have a a segment of it on LinkedIn, but it it just didn't it didn't thrive there.
So we go back to where we have over 9,500 members, the Facebook group.
I created it because I wanted it.
I created it because I wanted to find my community who talk specifically about this.
And I so I could get better at what I do.
And so that was the selfish reason for doing it, and it keep going back pretty much the same reasons.
I think a lot of people join it for the same reasons.
They wanna learn more about this craft.
They wanna learn more about how to, uh, you know, respond to potential client questions like I was just mentioning.
It's it's the support there is open to anybody.
Uh, and because there are so many people there, we do get that diverse responses from people, uh, different answers, different views from people.
And It's been very respectful in most cases, which I'm very, very happy with that it's not been a, you know, uh, you know, Republican versus Democrat type of argument.
It's everybody's been pretty cool there.
It's a key mission.
I don't know.
It's it's just, uh, that's a that community and support.
We feel like we belong there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That sense of belonging.
So this leads into my next question, which is that, you know, obviously, when we set out to create a community.
We are creating a space where people come together.
And I wanted to know what your space looks like.
You've already mentioned that it was a a Facebook group, and it sounds like you've tried some other things and and ultimately decided that a Facebook group was the right thing.
Is there also an in person component to it? Cause I see you all the time out at these podcasting conferences, do the podcast editors get together at person and things like that, or do you do virtual events or any other type of stuff like that as well? We, once a year, we'll do a holiday party.
Right around Christmas time.
So we'll do that.
And we'll do other things through the year.
Not too often, but sometimes, uh, because we're primarily focused on having those communications and those conversations in the Facebook group.
But then one thing, and and you asked me earlier, you know, the business side of of doing the podcast there is club, it wasn't intentional at the time, but because we started I started the Facebook group in 2017, and it just started growing.
And then in 2019, I got together with a friend of mine, Mark Deal, who keeps turning these little knobs in the podcasting space.
It's really weird.
And he's like, hey, Steve.
You got this Facebook group.
Why don't we do a conference? Okay.
So now I'm like, okay.
Let's do a conference.
So we did a mini con with Podfest in 2020.
Yes.
03/06/2020 right before the world shut down.
It was fantastic.
We took those videos from that conference.
And then we created a membership site.
So now there is a business aspect to this free community and it's a podcast at our academy.
We we start and we still have all the free information conversations and everything is in the Facebook group.
But if people want, you know, focused learning and, you know, focused support, That's where the podcast center Academy comes in.
It's I I'm trying to remember what the original question was, Seth.
What was it you wanted to know? I well, I wanted you to describe your space, but I I wanna touch on this.
So So you have a community.
It wasn't intentionally designed to generate a profit from it.
That wasn't what you set out to do with it.
But along the way, you sort of realized that members of that community needed you know, some of them needed additional or wanted additional training.
And so you could create a product, you know, a training product that you could sell to them.
It sounds like.
Right? Yes.
Yes.
Um, I was asking about the the space.
Um, and, you know, obviously, you've got the Facebook group, but do you guys get together and and you mentioned podcasts when you guys get together in person? Is there that element to it? Right.
So then after the conference, every time either my Mark or myself would go to an event.
Some kind of a a big event where our community might go, then, yes, we'll organize a little get together.
Usually just a meetup, maybe in one of the restaurants in the hotels or something like that.
And we've had quite a bit of success doing that.
And it's really just, hey, we're gonna be there.
Uh, Steve's gonna buy a couple apps for you, but you buy your own drinks and stuff like that.
And, you know, people show up because they want that community.
And when you get to you get together with the nerds of your type, There's something really special about that.
It's just like you feel like your friends instantly, even though you might have only seen them online a couple times.
And that's the beauty of of the community.
Yeah.
Uh, and there's something magical when people who have only met online get together face to face, and have a conversation to start to realize that, you know, these people have entire lives and and facets to them and and other sides to them besides just the reason that you get together in the community.
Uh, and I that's always special to watch.
Uh, let's talk about engagement.
You've touched on this a little bit.
Um, what does engagement look like in your community? Uh, you know, what what is the activity that's happening in the Facebook group? Do you have to do things to stimulate that engagement Or at this point, are they people coming in and asking and answering each other's questions on their own? And has that changed over time? Was it different at the beginning versus the activity that's happening in there now? I'd love to give a Cinderella story like but I don't have one.
This is a community that we started out and people right off the bat were asking questions because back in 2017, it was still kinda new.
When I started editing as a profession, I was walking into it.
I was like, nobody makes this as a as a full time job.
It turned into that for me.
And I was like, this is incredible.
This is impossible.
And that's when then I started the the Facebook group and the community, and other people were coming in and realizing, hey.
There's there's money to be made here.
There's people that we can serve here.
And make a living from or even as a a serious part time hustle.
So the questions just started coming.
And then as that was going on, the community was growing, having that focused that focused, um, mission you know, not being distracted by, hey, what's the best microphone kind of conversations help to make that that conversation more valuable inside of the the community? And so people just go there because they have specific questions that they wanna ask and help get help with, where it kept it just kept generating more conversations.
And every once in a while, somebody will ask a question that well, a lot of times, you people ask the same question.
Hey.
How do I find more clients and things like that? And we can point them to other things, but you know, there's gotta be at least a new post from somebody every single day that I'm not forced to then stir up some conversation.
I'm usually finding things that are interesting to our community, and I'll post that.
Or I'll have my own question.
I could probably pull up my Facebook group in a second here and and post whatever my my more recent question was, because I wanted to know the answer, and I wanna get, uh, a variety of answers to that question.
So I go there first.
Cause I know that they're they're my people, and they're the type of people that know what I'm talking about.
I don't have to explain myself or what I'm trying to ask because they're they're they're like me.
They they know what I'm talking about.
Have you found that there is a typical member journey of your members? I mean, do they come in, you know, looking for something simple, like, hey, what might do I use, or how do I get more clients? And then, you know, do they may maybe at first, they're just looking to edit their own podcast, or they're looking to do it as a side hustle? Do they then get to a point where maybe they are doing this professionally? Do they do you see that in the beginning, they are asking a lot of questions and getting information from other people, and then there becomes a point at which they become the experts, and they are then able to turn around and give information and answer other people's questions.
People come in at all stages of their, we'll say their podcast editing journey, where they're coming in brand new, or they've been doing it for decades, you know, get a lot of people in there who Hey, I'm from Radio and TV, and I wanna get into podcast editing.
So there's people from all levels there.
Uh, but if they come in and it's funny because there's a lot of people that come in, they join in, they never comment, they never post They're just lurkers.
And I'm cool with that too as long as they are getting some benefit from the community.
But then there are people who come in and they're like, hey, I would like to start doing this as a career.
How do I find clients? And then we know where they are from the beginning? We don't really guide them through the holds or anything.
We're just gonna answer their specific question because a lot of times the same questions being asked.
It's just being asked at different times of the year.
Um, so it's it's almost like we have a new community every year.
Where some people join and they're really active.
And then they kind of peter off.
And it's kinda like graduating.
You know, when you go through and you've learned everything, now you don't need to interact as much, unless you like helping other people.
And there's that the helpful supportive activity that we we have inside of of the group.
It just seems to be natural for them.
So it it really is random.
There's no there's no specific journey in there.
You mentioned lurkers, and I know a lot of community managers, you know, they worry about, you know, how do I turn my lurkers into more active participants? Um, and and maybe that's not something that you always need to be doing.
Maybe it's fine that there are lurkers in there.
Talk to me a little bit more about, you know, how you view the lurkers in your community.
Sometimes I worry that we're not connecting with them enough.
Why aren't they communicating? Why aren't they post asking questions, or they might be like, you know, like me.
I'll be joining a Facebook group or or any kind of community, and I'll just be looking and trying to learn from what I see.
Uh, you know, people go to YouTube videos to learn something.
I'm not gonna go comment on the guy's video who showed me how to change the the cabin filter in Mikea.
I'm not gonna go, Hey, that was fantastic.
Got anything else.
I I just I lurked and I consumed and I got what I needed.
I might come back if I had to do have other questions.
So with the community, there are more of that.
There's more of those questions about the industry and and how we serve clients or just how to edit our own podcasts.
Um, so they'll come back, and they've joined a group.
So it's it's not like they have to search for it every single time.
And the good news is it's it's there.
It's always there for him.
So I I can't remember what the original question was, but the lurkers I I appreciate the lurkers.
I just I'd hopefully, they're getting something from it.
I just don't know if they do or I think what bothers me probably more though is I have a newsletter.
Uh, people can e sign up for an email newsletter.
Never hear from most of the people when I send out these newsletters.
They don't respond.
And I'm I'm at, you know, posing questions and stuff like that.
So In the Facebook group, they can be lookers all day long.
That's fine.
But when I'm sending out an email and I'm sending them things like, hey.
So what do what do you think about this, or what would you do in this situation, or what's the alternative to that thing? No response.
And it's like, Nobody responded.
That's what kills me.
So I do feel like there's lurkers on newsletters, but in the community, it's it's okay because we're having people who do chime in and give great feedback and comments and responses to whatever questions that they have that that other people have.
So that's interesting.
You found more interaction in your space, in your Facebook group than and more discussion there than in the newsletter.
Yeah.
I don't know why.
I I mean, I wonder if that's because the newsletter is primarily a a, you know, a a one way broadcast, then there's kind of one to one communication, whereas when there's a, uh, that group setting, everybody can sort of hop into the discussion and and see each other's replies and set up for that a little bit more.
So Yes.
But the email is going directly to the person where is if they wanna go to the community, they have to go to Facebook, and they have to go to the group.
Unless they're getting notifications, they go to the notification, That's a they're purposely going there.
But you you're phrasing that as a barrier.
Maybe it's not.
Maybe it's a because they are specifically going to the effort of going to the community that they're more likely to participate and and have discussion there.
Or maybe it's the numbers thing.
Yeah.
It could be a number of things too.
Uh, let me think about moments of serendipity.
And and and I always describe serendipity as these moments where, you know, two people connect and something bigger comes out of it, you know, that it's it's John Lennon and Paul McCartney decided to start a band or, uh, Steve Wozni, I can Steve Jobs decide to start a company, or Jay Z and Beyonce just, you know, decide they're gonna start a family.
Um, have you seen any moments of serendipity where people come together, uh, either through your Facebook group or through one of your in person events, and something bigger, some has come out of it.
Yes.
Yes.
There is quite a few times where somebody who is growing their business is starting to look for help.
They've got an overload of work and looking for contractors.
And I I facilitate a way for that to happen.
Uh, every couple of months, I'll refresh a post.
I call it pitch yourself.
It's the only place where people can promote themselves in the group.
Because if everybody came in and say, hey, I'm this, and you can hire me for that, that's not what they're there for.
But if I, you know, have this every two month refresh post, say, hey, if you're an editor and you're looking to white label your work for somebody, put your information here.
And then if a podcast editor or somebody in the service side wants to find an editor, they can simply look at the people who responded to that post.
So that facilitates that that connection there.
But one of the coolest connections that was ever made was four people in the community had gotten together and created their own mastermind.
And then decided, you know what, we're having these great conversations.
Why don't we have a show like that? So they started the podcast editor's mastermind show, and they did it for four years.
They started to peter out, though, because things change over time.
People's lives change.
Uh, one focuses more on these really in-depth series.
Think like a, you know, a narrative, almost, uh, storytelling type of a podcast.
There's a lot of work involved in that.
And the others are still working a day job and doing this at night or one's doing it full time, but it's the interview type show.
Everybody had a different type of thing, and they weren't able to get together.
And they certainly weren't able to do the show anymore.
So I was talking with him one time.
I was like, hey, I'm missing the show.
What's going on? And she said, well, you know, we're we're having a hard time getting together to this thing.
So we're thinking about letting the show go and maybe we'll give it to somebody.
And I I scratched my head.
It's like, well, the Podcast Air Master Mine show seems to be right in line with with the brand, the Podcast Air's Club Podcast Air Academy, the Podcast Air Conference.
So why not just, uh, you know, take over the hosting for that show? So I got back into podcasting because this connection that we made, and they they were they have some really strong friendships still, even though they may not get together on a regular basis for a mastermind.
Um, and they created something beautiful, which fortunately we can still continue to provide that as a resource for people in this community as as a, you know, another way of learning, another way of of hearing about other things within the space that a podcast editor would wanna know about.
Those are always my favorite moments.
It's those moments where something just bigger grows out of it.
Uh, I I I love things like that.
You know, you mentioned that in your group, you don't want people coming in there and, you know, just pitching themselves and trying to to sell themselves.
Do you see that happen, especially with new members.
And how do you show new members to the community how they should behave in the community space? Yeah.
And that's that's where you know you got somebody who's brand new to the industries.
They come in hey, I'm on fiverr.
Hey, I'm I'm, you know, I'm starting a podcast editing business where they they post their information.
One of the, uh, so the the the group is a private group, and they have to answer questions before they're allowed to join the group.
And one of the the first question is a simple one that if they can't answer the first one properly, then I know that they're not they don't belong there.
And it's basically what do you use to edit podcasts? And then this is a PowerPoint.
I'm like, no.
And then, uh, another question.
And and but the final question is, you know, do you agree to the rules of group, which the rules then say no self promotion, no promoting pod kit your podcast or stuff like that? And and that that you focus the conversation only on the post production side and how to serve clients, putting on that podcast editor hat after you've taken off the podcast or hat.
So it's identified from the beginning.
Right off the bat, what is what's expected as the behavior.
Um, and then, you know, I've got the rules in there too that try and help to keep from people just spamming the group with their stuff.
And we don't I I I can't I have no no tolerance for that because I don't know of any groups.
No.
I'll say this again a different way.
I don't know of anybody who likes to go into groups where all it is is self promotion.
Why? Why go there? You know, I know a lot of, uh, new community builders worry that they're going to have to do a lot of rule enforcement.
Do you find yourself in that position? Does that take up a lot of your time? Or is it for the most part? Everybody gets it and everybody's fine.
And, yeah, maybe there's been a one or two things over the years, but, you know, it's mostly takes care of itself.
Yeah.
I've been blessed.
I've been blessed that it hasn't been a big problem.
But there is, you know, probably once a week, somebody poke comes in their post, and you just remove the post.
And and there's settings since it's Facebook, and and they've got these settings in there.
You can make it so that somebody needs they're like in, uh, what do you call it? Like detention where you the posts if they wanna post again, then it's up for its pending, and I have to approve it first.
Uh, so it'll sit there in limbo until I hit the approve or decline button.
And if they keep doing it, then, of course, I remove them from the group.
So it's been You know, there's a little bit of moderation in there, but if it was easy, if it was any easier, then, you know, everybody would be doing it.
Right? Is that what they say? No.
But if it was too easy, then it wouldn't be worth doing.
So I don't mind doing the work because I love the community myself.
If I wasn't in it just to be a member.
If I really was doing this as some kind of a monetization play, uh, then I'd feel bad about my group because I don't want the group to be like that either.
I I don't want it to be a group about You should join this academy.
You should pay me money.
That's not what the group is for itself or just support commanding.
I like to be able to serve people in that way.
So that raises an interesting question.
You know, how are you measuring the success of what you're doing with this community.
I mean, are are there metrics that you're looking at, or is it more about vibes and the value that you're getting out of it? Yeah.
It's the vibes and what I'm getting out of it.
Again, this is this is a group that I made for me.
I wanted it for myself.
It's my favorite place in the internet.
It's where I can find people like me that I can hang out with because, uh, I'll tell you.
Going the I'm not I'll go to social events And I'm always feeling like an outsider unless it's at a podcast conference or something like that.
I'm because nobody gets what I do.
Nobody gets me.
My my father in law still tells people that I work in computers.
He gets the internet.
He gets the service provider thing.
I explained to him what a podcast is, but for some reason, he wants to tell people that I work in computers.
And it's like, no.
No.
Uh, I don't understand where that had come from.
So The community's really find your people, it sounds like.
Yes.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Really weird nerds like me who like to talk about the post production side of editing because I wanna get better at it myself.
And I put in my ten thousand hours.
I think I'm pretty good by now.
I'm still learning.
There's still more to learn.
And technology changes.
I mean, come on.
The world's been upended since Open AI in 2023.
The world is complete.
Man, the discussions we're having about that stuff now.
Yeah.
Let me ask about feedback.
Do you have a formal way or even an informal way of just hearing from members of the community? And then how do you put that feedback into practice? I mean, have you made changes over the years depending on what you've heard from your community members.
That's an interesting question.
No.
I don't.
I don't have any way of of structurally asking for feedback and stuff like that.
Uh, because the group's been active, it's just been rolling along.
You know, I'm asking interesting questions that I have.
Other people are asking extreme questions they have.
We have these conversations about things in the industry.
No.
There's no kind of a feedback loop there.
How I measure the success is, you know, is it still growing? Uh, I did a a a webinar or where they call it, uh, it was a closed livestream for Riverside.
And immediately, after that live stream ended, I go to the Facebook group, and there's, like, 20 requests for new members to join.
All these people have never known that there was a community just for podcast editors And, you know, so if you were to look at a graph of of the membership growth, you know, it's, you know, couple of day, maybe.
And then, you know, this big spike, it was wonderful.
So, uh, that was a success.
I guess you could say that was a success thing.
And it wasn't even to promote the group.
It was to talk about, you know, editing with Riverside.
So here's my last question for you.
Uh, I want you to give advice to some people who are thinking about launching a community.
You know, um, what advice would you give them? And is there anything that you have done on your own journey that you would do differently if you were to do it over again? I would probably start so let's start with the last part of that question.
What do I do differently? From the get go, I would probably ask for their email address to be added to a newsletter.
That would be the one thing I would I would change is I I wasn't asking for contact information where I could get them onto a newsletter earlier on.
But, uh, the right the suggestion I would have when if you're thinking about doing a community, know from the start what you're getting into.
If you're doing something where It could get spammy.
Make sure you put some guardrails in place.
But then I approach I always approach having this community as it's a service.
It's a way of serving people.
I'm not really to I never did that to get something for myself other than to be part of a community.
It wasn't monetization.
It wasn't to get clients.
It wasn't, you know, anything selfish other than I wanna be part of a community and you're invited.
And if you approach it that way, if you approach it as a servant, then I think you're gonna have a really successful time communicating and communing with other people.
That's great advice.
I love that.
Steve, thank you so much.
This has been fascinating to learn about how you do it, and and I've been able to watch this, you know, you grow this group in particular for a number of years, and I've always been very impressed with the way you have organized all the different podcast editors and really serve them.
So, uh, if people wanna learn more about the podcast editors' club, uh, where do they go? So they just look it up on Facebook.
Is that the way to join? Yeah.
The primary place is Facebook.
They can just search for podcast editors in Facebook.
It's the only one that's really gonna have any substantial group, or then go to podcasteditors.
club, and it'll redirect them right there.
Got it.
Oh, that's easy.
Podcasteditors.
club and the academy.
Uh, if anybody's interested in taking the academy, how did they do that? Yeah.
Then go to podcasteditoracademy.
com.
We've closed the doors to accepting new members right now, but it'll be open again probably in the 2026.
Oh, that's interesting.
So you'd use a launch model where it it's sort of like a college or university where registration opens and then closes and everybody goes through it at the same, uh, you know, kind of in cohorts.
Well, not necessarily like it's a structured, uh, you know, curriculum, but we we close the doors because holidays are coming up.
We wanna focus on the existing members.
I don't wanna have to worry about marketing and all this stuff on the side.
Uh, we can take our time with that.
It does put a little bit of that urgency for people who are on the fence about joining to do it and do it before they start spending all of their other money on things like Christmas and Thanksgiving and New Year's and all that stuff.
So, uh, I do have a preference of not putting people into debt.
We'll we'll just leave it at that.
I I yes.
We didn't even touch upon all the work that you were doing in the personal finance space, but I know that you work with a lot of, uh, personal finance podcasters.
Well, Steve, thank you very much.
I appreciate you taking the time, and, uh, congratulations on everything you've been able to put together here.
Thanks, Seth.
I appreciate being here
