SHOW TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.  Any errors or omissions are unintentional.

[00:00:00] Jeff Sieh: Hello folks. Welcome to Creator News Live. I’m Jeff c and you’re not. And this is the show that keeps you up to date on what’s happening in the world of social media and so much more. Have you ever wondered what it really takes to build a community that lasts?

[00:00:12] Jeff Sieh: Maybe you’re trying to figure out how to have deeper connections with your audience instead of just chasing numbers, or maybe you’re just looking for a more sustainable way to grow your business without burning out. If any of that sounds familiar in the right place, because today we are talking with a guest who is an expert at building and nurturing online communities.

[00:00:28] Jeff Sieh: Long before it was trendy, Paul Gowder had spent the last 25 years growing powwows.com into a trusted home. For connection, culture, and conversation. And he’s learned a lot along the way. So he’s visited hundreds of powwows around North America, and he’s been able to capture those events and publish them to millions of viewers on his website and YouTube channel, and having experienced the trials and tribulations of running a successful online community for decades, Paul helps other entrepreneurs navigate successes and pitfalls of building online businesses through [00:01:00] his public speaking and consulting services.

[00:01:02] Jeff Sieh: Because today we’re gonna be talking about some of the real world lessons he’s learned, practical insights, and what creators should be focusing on as we head into 2026. So sit back, clear your schedule, clear your mind, and get ready for it. This week’s episode of Creator News Live. That’s right folks. It is Paul Gowder here at Creator News Live. So Paul, my friend, how are you doing?

[00:01:24] Paul Gowder: I am good. I’m good, man. I, I’m looking forward to this conversation. Uh,you know, we’ve been talking back and forth about this and so much is changing right now, so I’m, I’m excited to kind of dive in and talk about how we can get over this AI stuff and be real.

[00:01:36] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So something that is real is actually our sponsor of the show. Yes, that’s right folks. I have a real sponsor. Uh, you can find out more about them at Ecamm dot com slash jeff. They are what make the show happen. They’re the ones that, uh, have this technology that I’m actually broadcasting live, being able to pull up cool things on the screen, have Paul come in remotely.

[00:01:54] Jeff Sieh: It’s great for actually creating videos, all sorts of stuff. You can go to Ecamm dot com slash jeff, [00:02:00] save 15% on your first purchase, by using the code, Jeff, 15. And by the way, they’ve got a, creator camp coming up in the United Kingdom, overseas for us folks across the pond. You can find out more about that by going to tube vest.co.uk/creator-camp.

[00:02:16] Jeff Sieh: Really easy. URL. So, just go to Ecamm. They have it there, but it’s April the 23rd, the 24th in the United Kingdom. find out more with that URL, but Paul Gowder, we are talking about being human in an AI world. It’s a lot of stuff going on right now in the news. People are freaking out. We’re gonna talk about all sorts of cool stuff, but I wanna know from the audience, where do you feel the strongest connection with the creators that you follow?

[00:02:41] Jeff Sieh: Is it on social media, is it on email, or is it live video? So I would love to know where you feel the strongest connection with the people you follow online. Is it the, his social email or live video? I know Paul would probably say email. I’m a big live video and email fan. So, we’ll be talking about that.

[00:02:58] Jeff Sieh: Um, this is, [00:03:00] so we’ve got our friends showing up already. rich Graham says Morning gents and Rich Graham says, AI needs to give Paul a Roosevelt shirt. Paul has tons. He made the calendar. like a Sports Illustrated, calendar.

[00:03:11] Jeff Sieh: But it’s all Roosevelt shirts and Paul is one of them. So very, very cool. And tech troublemaker says live video. That’s where he connects with people. I would agree with that. I think we’re gonna have a resurgence of that. Paul, what do you.

[00:03:21] Paul Gowder: For sure. I, I think people are looking for ways to connect right now and to feel more human. Yeah, I think, I think live video, or, you know, live on the, some of these, uh, platforms like TikTok and Instagram, I think we’re gonna see a lot more of that. Yeah, I, I definitely gonna lean more into live video.

[00:03:37] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. In fact, Zach Brown says live video for him. Immediate feedback, very, very crew like what we’re doing right now, and email is for that one-on-one conversation. And we are gonna talk a lot about that today. but I wanted to kind of ask, Paul, one of the things that has come across that I have seen kind of in the recent news cycle is Instagram, Adam Mora Moari, I think is how you say [00:04:00] his name.

[00:04:00] Jeff Sieh: they, he said that like. Last month, right at the end of the year where he was saying that Polish curated feed is effectively dead because AI makes these perfect images, and they’re making them easy and kind of un interesting. So what do you think, what does the shift towards raw, unfiltered content mean for creators?

[00:04:16] Jeff Sieh: ’cause that’s what he said that’s gonna take precedent over on Instagram is like the signals that show that it’s real, it’s raw, even bad lighting, all that stuff is gonna be a signal now to Instagram that this is a real person, a real photo, whatever. so what do you think it means for creators who’ve kind of built their, brand on this kind of published this, this high quality, really polished

[00:04:36] Jeff Sieh: content?

[00:04:36] Paul Gowder: well, you know, Instagram’s never been a place for me. I’ve tried to go on Instagram, but when I’m scrolling that feed all those perfect pictures, whether it’s, you know, people traveling or lifestyle content, whatever, it all looks too polished to me. So I, I never really got super into Instagram. So I think this is good news.

[00:04:55] Paul Gowder: I think it, it’s gonna level the playing field. same thing like on YouTube. I produce [00:05:00] some content for my personal stuff on YouTube, but I’ve always felt the overwhelm of doing anything other than live, because I feel like to compete with some of. Other creators, you’ve gotta have super polished video and Ecamm helps with all that, but you know, you gotta have the multiple camera angles and all the graphics and be perfect.

[00:05:18] Paul Gowder: I, I think this is great news because now every creator has a chance. It, it’s gonna be more about what you say, what you do in the content as opposed to how it looks. So we’re just one video away from going viral and having the same reach as, you know, a another big channel out there.

[00:05:36] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I, I, I totally agree with that. And, Missouri suggested that like, raw and perfect posts, you know, was gonna be the proof that a real, human is behind that content, at least for now, because he also said that that is gonna come along where the AI is going to be able to figure out how to make it look that way.

[00:05:54] Jeff Sieh: So how, how do you think that creators can generally signal that authenticity without [00:06:00] feeling like they’re performing authenticity? You know what I’m saying? Like in. You can tell it when somebody’s faking it and being real, to be real, for real sake, I think that’s gonna be, we’ll see a lot of creators do that, but how can we not do that and just be like, be ourselves and actually, you know, use that when we’re creating our content.

[00:06:18] Paul Gowder: Yeah, I’ve been watching Gary V lately, and he talks about this a lot, is we have to stop, especially on these, on these channels like Instagram and TikTok is stop just posting. If we’re, say, a Disney creator or, for me email you, every video can’t be about that, but people want to know more about you.

[00:06:37] Paul Gowder: And I think that’s the way we’re going to signal that we’re authentic. So like for me, I’m posting content about bourbon. I’m posting my travel content, and then I may do some business content as well. I even had, posted last night just a question about, bingeable shows and within an hour, yeah, within an hour had like 50 comments because that’s what people are looking for.

[00:06:57] Paul Gowder: I think they are tired of scrolling that [00:07:00] perfect feed. And so that, that’s the way that we, as you know, creators that don’t have the following of a Mr. Beast. It, that’s how we’re gonna signal to these, to these cha these platforms that we’re real. And to the people out there looking is just posting more about ourselves and not just being a one dimensional channel.

[00:07:20] Jeff Sieh: So let’s talk about those kind of, those trust signals that people are looking for and like the identity when they build their audience. Like, you know, if you see Paul live, or he’s at a conference, there’s probably gonna be a bourbon tasting. So that’s his brand. I mean, that’s part of Paul’s makeup.

[00:07:35] Jeff Sieh: And then the business stuff goes to that. And if you look at people like Jay Bear, who has loved tequila forever, well now his, his brand and we’ve had him on the show before, which is a great episode, but now his brand is like. He does his marketing stuff, he still does his speaking thing, but now he’s actually tacking on the end of his speaking gigs, like, Hey, I’m having a tequila tasting and the company’s sponsoring it and he’s got private barrels now, and all this stuff that is built on one of his [00:08:00] passions that he’s kind of merged into the Jay Bear brand experience.

[00:08:04] Jeff Sieh: And so I think stuff like that is gonna be kind of the next wave is tying in the stuff you really like. Like, you know, I’m passionate about wood carving and creative and creativity and that kind of stuff. And so like we’re getting ready. Katie Fox, for me, Kim and I are getting ready to start a new show where it’s all about crafting, which is not really business and it, you know, but it is me.

[00:08:25] Jeff Sieh: And so that’s gonna help build the brand as well. So I think, what do you think are some other ways that people can do, like, I, I don’t think that people need to spread themselves too thin and like, Hey, I’m gonna broadcast all of my hobbies and things that I like to do or every minute of my day. But what should we be doing to.

[00:08:42] Jeff Sieh: Move people to know that we are real. I guess those trust signals, I guess, like what, what do you think those trust signals are that we can do? Like, I think answering comments, I think, asking questions in your email and then actually responding to those. What are some other ones you think of?

[00:08:55] Paul Gowder: Well, uh, first I wanna say like your new podcast with Katie I think is brilliant [00:09:00] because. Platforms like Facebook are now rewarding you for just posting good content with the whole content monetization program. So it doesn’t have to be, you don’t have to come up with some kind of channel or a video podcast idea that’s necessarily gonna move people to some kind of funnel and, sell products.

[00:09:16] Paul Gowder: Now you’re just getting rewarded for good building good content. So I think that’s, really important as we start thinking about content in 2026. But, you know, we’re in the relationship business and we have to find ways to tell our story to be relatable. You know, in some of my talks this year at conferences, I told the, the story about my first day at Boy Scout Camp and the whole point, one of the points for that is to find a way to relate to people in the audience.

[00:09:41] Paul Gowder: So after I tell the story, it’s like, okay, you know, who’s a boy scout who went to summer camp? So we now have something in common. So when you find me in the hallway afterwards, we have something we can talk about, right? So I think, and that’s, that’s what you can do by posting. You’re wood carving. There’s probably people out there that are wood carvers.

[00:09:59] Paul Gowder: Maybe they have a [00:10:00] side hustle, maybe they’re wanting to build a business and would’ve never run across creator news live. But they may run across Jeff c the wood carver, and then they go down this whole other rabbit trail and they buy Ecamm. The next thing you know, they’re, they’re streaming.

[00:10:12] Paul Gowder: You know? So I, I, I think that’s the thing is we have to be relatable, tell our story. We don’t have to, you know, don’t share your location and tell where you’re gonna be every minute of the day. But, yeah, I mean, people want to know if you’re, if you’re out there doing this, people want to know that I’m into Roosevelt shirts or, you know, I like bourbon, or I’m going on a Disney cruise.

[00:10:31] Paul Gowder: Those little things help build that relationship and build, you know, some kind of relatable aspect of yourself. I, we have to start telling those stories.

[00:10:40] Jeff Sieh: And I think an important thing is, is it needs to be real. You’re not doing it for engagement sake, or you’re not telling a certain story, trying to, you know, those sympathy posts or those humble brag posts that we see. You can always tell the people who are fishing like, hey. Hit me in the dms, ’cause I’m gonna sit, you’re gonna be hitting my funnel.

[00:10:58] Jeff Sieh: I think it’s more organic, like you were [00:11:00] saying, like, it’s like, I like Ecamm. Here’s the stuff like when we’re carving, we’re gonna have our Amazon links for, like, Katie’s gonna be doing crochet, she’s gonna have her links that you can buy that stuff and support her that way. I’m gonna have the knives that I use and that kind of stuff like that just seems kind of natural and it’s like you’re just helping people with your resources that you have.

[00:11:18] Jeff Sieh: You’re not so much marketing to them to get them into a specific funnel, to drive them into, you know, my newsletter, which is gonna hit you every week about, you know, a, a sale that I’m trying to do. That’s not what we’re doing. So I do wanna kind of pivot to, email communities and, I mean, you have helped me a lot, you know, become more personal.

[00:11:36] Jeff Sieh: In fact, I, I credit any of the growth I’ve had in email to a lot of stuff that you’ve taught me because of. Like just being real. Like my emails are very, they look like they’re just sent like from Outlook or from Gmail. There’s no artwork. It’s just a conversation, which is by design, because I want it to be like that.

[00:11:54] Jeff Sieh: You feel like you’re getting a, a, just a friendly email from me. So how can email help creators build that [00:12:00] relationship that those short form social platforms are now struggling with to, to actually, you know, grow and, and actually have engagement on.

[00:12:08] Paul Gowder: First, I, I want to say your emails are awesome, and I’ve heard people tell you that they didn’t know it was a newsletter and they thought you were writing directly to

[00:12:16] Paul Gowder: them. That’s the ultimate, right? That’s the goal, is that we are doing content in a way that people think we’re, we’re sending it just to them.

[00:12:23] Paul Gowder: but I think you have to change your mindset about email and about community. So many creators and people out there think that community. Is the platform and community is not that there’s probably people watching this video now that will never post a comment, may never go into your Facebook group and, and reply, but they watch the videos, they read your messages, and they still feel a, a bond and some kind of relationship with you.

[00:12:49] Paul Gowder: That is your community. Your community is all these people out here that engage with your content regardless of who they are. And email is one of those places. People that subscribe to your newsletter and read it every week, [00:13:00] they feel like they’re in your community, but they may never Join your Facebook group, right?

[00:13:04] Paul Gowder: So community first and really think about that when you write these emails. Talk directly to the person, be personal. You know, even like my weekly email is, here’s our new articles, here’s the upcoming powwows, here’s the live stream that will be live tonight from Pachanga Powwow in California. Go check it out pows.com/slack Yes, I put all that in. But the top of my email I reserved for me where I can write a personal thing, and sometimes it is, even though it, it’s powwows.com some, you know, I’ll say, oh, hey, this week I’m heading down to Florida, I’m gonna be speaking at Pod Fest. Kelly’s gonna go check out the parks and hanging out with our daughter.

[00:13:40] Paul Gowder: and I’m looking forward to hanging out with friends who, you know, might have a, you know, gonna go check out some restaurants. I, I’m gonna put some of that in there, even though it’s not about powwows, because I’m just telling that story and trying to be personal and, you know, ask a question, Hey, where are you heading this month?

[00:13:54] Paul Gowder: What powwows are you looking forward to? All that kind of stuff gets that engagement. Like Zach said earlier, it’s the place where you [00:14:00] can have one-on-one conversations and we have to do the unscalable. somebody told me recently when I was talking about email, they’re like, oh my God, you ask questions in an email list with a hundred thousand people?

[00:14:11] Paul Gowder: Are you crazy? I was like, no, that, that’s what’s gonna set me apart because I’m not scared to ask people. Then I will reply to ’em. Now I have systems and I have help, to handle all of that influx, but that’s how we set ourselves apart, is doing things that are unscalable. So yeah, if, if somebody replies to you and wants to continue that conversation, man, that’s, that’s the ultimate, right?

[00:14:31] Paul Gowder: We now they’ve given you their time and they want to have that relationship with you. Hit reply and talk to ’em.

[00:14:38] Jeff Sieh: yeah. And I, so you know how, Lou would always, he does his podcast, he always says, Hey, my friend, because he wants to have that. Intimate thing with, like I’m talking to you, you’re the only one. I’m that I’m in your ear. That’s who I’m talking to. I’ve kind of copied that idea and I have stopped calling, Hey, join my email list.

[00:14:55] Jeff Sieh: I’m saying join my email community, because that’s what I really want to do. And I think we all [00:15:00] should would probably start doing that. Like, Hey, sign up not for my newsletter. Or that, say, sign up for my email community and join the conversation that we can have, you know, one-on-one together, whatever. And, and have it that way.

[00:15:11] Jeff Sieh: Because I think that’s what I want people to feel like it’s a community that you join. And by the way, you can join that by going to, uh, jeffy.com/news. I probably should call it jeffy.com/community or something. But anyway, just go to jeff c.com/news. And then tech troublemaker says there is a fine line between personal email and a cease and desist letter.

[00:15:30] Jeff Sieh: That’s very true. You gotta be careful. ’cause that is a, there is a paper trail when you do an email, but, um. Dustin says, I need a good bourbon recommendation. You have come to the right place. Uh uh, actually, Paul is putting out some, what was the, the new little series you’re doing on YouTube?

[00:15:44] Jeff Sieh: That’s gonna

[00:15:45] Paul Gowder: It will start next week. It’s gonna be called, it’s, it’ll be on my Facebook and YouTube and TikTok. It’s gonna be called Try January because I have too many unopened bottles and I’m gonna open ’em up and give ’em a try. So, look forward to that. Dustin, send me a message. I’ll be glad to send you [00:16:00] recommendations.

[00:16:00] Paul Gowder: I’m trying to think of a good one right now that’s on the shelf that I would recommend. I mean, it’s still Austin. The cast drink stuff is great. Yeah. Go find one of those.

[00:16:08] Jeff Sieh: That’s a Texas one, by the way. Um, but I want, so we were, when we were planning this show, kind of talking back and forth, Paul, you had said, you know, this is kinda what you wanna talk about and here’s all the reasons why. And you have some great examples of this, but you said you, you’re seeing a demand for like, analog, uh, Katie and I, that’s why we’re doing like the, and we actually are putting in our tagline, analog is a lot of people like on TikTok and Instagram are now searching for analog, like that key word.

[00:16:33] Jeff Sieh: So human-centered connection, live video. We’ve talked about community events in-person meetups, they’re increasing because of this AI saturation. So how should creators plan for that? Like this move towards analog and, and give some examples. Like you were telling some of the stuff that you even gave your daughter, ’cause she was asking for it for Christmas.

[00:16:51] Paul Gowder: Yeah, so I saw that somebody is releasing a phone that looks just like a Blackberry and it’s only gonna have email messaging and [00:17:00] calendar. No, no browser, no apps, no nothing because people are wanting to disconnect from that stuff. yeah.

[00:17:05] Paul Gowder: My daughter this year, she asked for a CD player and CDs, which is not completely analog, but it is. It’s it’s away

[00:17:12] Jeff Sieh: Old school. Yeah.

[00:17:13] Paul Gowder: It’s old school. Yeah. She’s actually hanging her CDs on the wall and. Now again, my daughter comes from hanging out with me as, as a kid, and all the photography I do and the, the nice big digital s all our cameras I have, and she has one, she asks for a little small point and shoot camera because she wants to be off of her phone and do pictures that she feels like are more authentic.

[00:17:35] Paul Gowder: I, I’m seeing a lot more of that. And so how do we as creators embrace that? I think we have to start posting more and stop scripting everything. Stop planning everything. I mean, we can still do that kind of stuff, but we have to just hit the record button and, and just post. and people are gonna see that more.

[00:17:53] Paul Gowder: it, it, it’s a struggle. You know, I’ve, I’m trying to post more content like that and, and it’s hard for me too, but that’s what people are [00:18:00] looking for is somebody just like TikTok or, or Instagram or Facebook reels. They’re just looking for somebody that, that’s just. Real, whether you’re out walking around or, you know, I just got the meta ray bands because I feel like that’s gonna be a, a little bit easier way for me to do more of that kind of content.

[00:18:17] Paul Gowder: yeah, I think that’s what people are looking for and so we have to embrace that. Another one that I’m doing this year, and people have asked for this, which is crazy. I have several digital products on powwows.com, and the demand for printed copies of them is huge. So I’m setting up my, account with Lulu so that when somebody buys a digital print, they’ll have the option to actually order a printed copy of it.

[00:18:38] Paul Gowder: Which to me, again, is crazy because like if they want my powwow calendar, you’re not gonna have the links in it, necessarily. Right. There’s no way to click on a printed version. So, but people don’t want that. They want something they can hold in their hands. So yeah, as creators we have to really think about that and figure out ways to get people outside of the norm.

[00:18:57] Paul Gowder: You know, we, before we hit record, we were talking about. [00:19:00] Gmail, adding this AI feature, I think it’s gonna be really helpful. And I like the idea of, outlook or Gmail or something summarizing my email, making sure I don’t miss appointments, making sure I follow up with emails. But I also think it’s going to, I think people are gonna revolt against it a little bit because they, they’re going to miss that personal connection in their emails.

[00:19:19] Paul Gowder: And so, like, if my mom sends me an email asking me about something, if AI just sends me a, a summary saying, by the way your mom mentioned so-and-so, I, I’m not gonna want that. Right. I won’t, I won’t to actually reply and read that message. So I think, I think we’re gonna see, as much as AI is helping us and, and making things more efficient, I think we’re gonna see that shift in 2026 of people wanting to be a little bit more isolated from AI and go back to the human.

[00:19:45] Paul Gowder: I mean, that’s what we’re talking about, right? And I

[00:19:47] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:19:48] Paul Gowder: Gmail may be making a mistake here.

[00:19:49] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, it’ll be interesting ’cause I mean, there’s already like rollup and like I use SaneBox for mine, so I like, I don’t wanna like. Totally dismiss some of the, you know, the [00:20:00] shopping stuff that comes out. Like you want to have a sale or something, but I don’t wanna see it every day or all the time, but I don’t wanna unsubscribe.

[00:20:05] Jeff Sieh: So being able to move it somewhere else is helpful for me. But then I can have stuff like, I even saw Dustin came out today, like there’s a new training on how to use a certain aspect of Magi, like that stuff that I may not click on right away because, you know, I was getting ready for a show and I couldn’t watch it or go through this training, but I, I know that’s there and I don’t wanna miss that next time.

[00:20:25] Jeff Sieh: So that needs to be still in my feed. So I think it’s, it’s really interesting how that’s gonna work. Hopefully it won’t be too heavy handed and the people we wanna read, it’s still easy to find. but yeah, I think that making sure that you are doing things that keep you top of mind also is like, hey, and you gotta remember like you’re, especially when we’re talking about email, that not everybody.

[00:20:46] Jeff Sieh: Is following you for the same reasons. Some people may, like, they came in, they, they loved this show, or maybe they saw me speak, which are two different things. And so how can you continually drip stuff out to them that still makes sense to the people who [00:21:00] signed up and who are your, your audience and, and, and that kind of thing.

[00:21:03] Jeff Sieh: So it’s very, very interesting that way. I do, I do want to kind of move on to the next section because I want to ask this question of our audience, which is, what’s a piece of content that generally changed. How you think or work? It can be a YouTube video, it can be, a book you’ve read, like what’s a piece of content that genuinely changed how you think or work.

[00:21:22] Jeff Sieh: Do you have anything off the top of your head there, Paul? for me, I think it was Sahil Bloom, I think is the five Types of Wealth. And one of the things he said is like, no one is coming to save you. That’s one of the things he said is like, and that was really good.

[00:21:35] Jeff Sieh: Like, and that like nobody cares. Like we’re talking about trying some maybe new forms of content, you know, to kind of be real for more people. And we worry a lot, a lot of people are not pressing that record button or the publish button because they’re scared of what other people might think.

[00:21:51] Jeff Sieh: And the reality is, and he goes into it a lot in his article, is that most people don’t care. They’re too worried, much worried about themselves. So we need to kind of let that go. [00:22:00] So I think that was a big thing for me.

[00:22:01] Paul Gowder: for me it’s been, I mean, like I said earlier, I’ve been listening to a lot of Gary Vaynerchuk and talking about, posting content being more real. But for me also, recently it’s been. some of these bourbon content or cruise content I’ve been posting on my personal, and I’ve always worried one that how people will think and, oh my God, what’s he doing now?

[00:22:20] Paul Gowder: But two, like worried that I was just gonna flood my friends and family with all this other content. And so watching some of this content I’ve put out in the last couple of months and looking at the demographics of it, Facebook is smart and they’re figuring out. And so that has changed my mindset. I, you know, I look at like my review of a polite pig that I posted recently.

[00:22:39] Paul Gowder: When I look at who saw that video, I think on Facebook, it, it’s got like 3000 views or something. It’s not, not viral, but it, it’s good for what my personal profile has. And it’s like 70% of the people who saw that video are non followers. Only like 25% are the followers. So. My friends and family aren’t gonna get bombarded by me posting more bourbon content.

[00:22:59] Paul Gowder: [00:23:00] Facebook is going to push that out. So that, that’s one of the things that should change my, my concept and just post more and let Facebook, Instagram, whoever, figure out the distribution of it and they’ll take care of it

[00:23:10] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. I think also it’s important and, and we’re gonna talk a little bit about offline events. Like we, we go to Momentum. That’s how we met. We’ve gone to and spoke at the same conferences like CEX last year. And, uh, we’re gonna be at POD in a couple week next week

[00:23:23] Jeff Sieh: actually.

[00:23:24] Jeff Sieh: yeah. And one of the things is those relationships that you build.

[00:23:27] Jeff Sieh: makes a difference, I think even online and how you connect online. So, in, in fact our friend, Lindsay Dollinger is here. She’s going, Hey guys. And she loves, uh, Gary V and then agreed. a lot of people are saying more, not to niche now, but more overall lifestyle posts. And it was really interesting because, yesterday I think Lindsay had posted something about, Hey, what is important to you on a cruise line?

[00:23:48] Jeff Sieh: Is it itinerary? Is it the, the, the cruise line? What is it? And if I wouldn’t have known Lindsay and that would’ve come up in my feed, I wouldn’t have answered, right? I was just like, it’s like, but I was like, oh, [00:24:00] she asked a question. We have a connection. I wanna help her out and help her get some love on the post.

[00:24:06] Jeff Sieh: And one of the ways to do that is, is to leave comments. And I was like, okay, I’ll do that. And so I took, you know, whatever amount of time and did that for her. But it was because I have that relationship with Lindsay. From meeting her at conferences, seeing her being on her show, she’s been on my show. So that makes a big difference.

[00:24:22] Jeff Sieh: And I think we can’t discount the actual one-on-one, you know, even if it’s a Zoom call one-on-one. Those type type of things are really important for building, you know, this trust and, and authenticity that we’ve been talking about.

[00:24:36] Paul Gowder: Yeah. and don’t discount going to conferences and, and having those connections there. You, you never know. What you might meet somebody who’s been a follower of yours or, or read your, me your emails forever, and then meet that face-to-face meeting can change everything.

[00:24:48] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. so we’re talking about, You know, what we need to do for the content that’s changed the way we think or work. And we kinda mentioned that. But this, I read, read across this guy and I’ve, I’ve read his newsletter for a long time and I never really kind of dove [00:25:00] into it, but he had this great article and he was talking about, you know, educational content and one of the things, his name is Danko, KOEE, and says, basic educational content is dead.

[00:25:11] Jeff Sieh: And I thought, Ooh, that’s really interesting because he was saying that because everybody can go and ask AI now how to do something like, Hey, how do I create a funnel for my new product? Give me some and it’ll, it’ll stick it out. so he was saying that these surface level tips that AI can generate, it’s no longer gonna cut through the noise.

[00:25:31] Jeff Sieh: Right. So he was talking about like, what kind of content still holds that lasting value for audience. So what are your thoughts about that? Like, so. What kind of content do you think is gonna hold value for audience when they can ask ai and it’ll even bring up YouTube videos on like, Hey, I need to help.

[00:25:47] Jeff Sieh: What does this thing do on my toilet? I could take a picture of it and, and they’ll say, oh, it’s this, and here’s how you fix it. It’ll just do it for you. So I may not go watch or read an article from a YouTuber or whatever to figure that out because I can just ask AI. [00:26:00] Now. Thoughts on that,

[00:26:00] Paul Gowder: Yeah.

[00:26:01] Paul Gowder: first of all, for somebody who’s created lots of content over the years, in, in the native world with craft tutorials and, you know, what is a pow wow, all that kinda thing, it, it scares me to death because, you know, the traffic continues to, to decrease because of ai. But I think the way we cut through that noise is creating content that not just teaches a lesson, but shows what that lesson meant to us.

[00:26:23] Paul Gowder: So we have to, again, tell story. You have to, instead of just teaching somebody how to build a sequence in a newsletter, I have to show them what building a sequence did for me and. Why, and, and even maybe like, here’s a mistake I made and here’s how it, you know, affected things and here’s what I learned from it.

[00:26:41] Paul Gowder: it’s showing our flaws, showing our actual experiences, and not just having a webinar, teaching a topic, because yeah, people don’t need that now. so I think it, it’s, it is us showing, the whole part of it. Right. You know, and, and showing why it was important.

[00:26:57] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, so, and I think that’s gonna be [00:27:00] something that’s gonna be a, a real struggle because we have. It’s a new muscle that we’re having to like, strengthen and do. It’s not just like, here’s how to do this. Like here’s how to use a AI to create these awesome images, but I should take it deeper. Like, okay, how can I use AI to create images that help me become more creative?

[00:27:20] Jeff Sieh: Or I use this image that I generated to create a new piece of art that I use, like let’s say I create, I used AI to create me a pattern that I’m gonna use for a wood carving that’s never been done before. Then I can take that and actually make it physically using AI as a tool to do it, but then go deeper in like, okay, I’m taking that, but then I’m improvising and making it in a new medium, or I’m twisting it up this way, or this is what I discovered.

[00:27:47] Jeff Sieh: I tried it and because it was AI generated, it didn’t work because it just broke. You know, those kind of things. I think you’re right that we’re gonna have to take it deeper and show what it means to us and what’s the transformation that’s gonna happen. For, you know, the [00:28:00] people who are you, you’re, you’re giving advice or teaching on how to do it.

[00:28:04] Jeff Sieh: So,

[00:28:04] Paul Gowder: One of the ways you can do that, I think too is, is start thinking about how you can serialize your content. So again, like my try January, but another series I’m working on is, on the business side is I’m going to do, a challenge for myself of building my online community from zero paid members to a hundred paid members by the end of the year.

[00:28:23] Paul Gowder: And I’m going to be very real with it and show people like the mistakes I’ve made. the first video is gonna be about that. I’ve built this platform and I have a lot of people in the free, but I don’t have anybody in the pay ’cause I never talk about it. And you have to be intentional. So that’s gonna be the first thing.

[00:28:37] Paul Gowder: Right? And, and showing that, you know, I don’t put it in my newsletter. I don’t put it in my talks, you know, so, and, and that’s, that’s the kind of thing I think that people are going to relate to is showing your story and showing that we’re not perfect. We don’t have all the answers, but here’s how I’m learning.

[00:28:53] Paul Gowder: I.

[00:28:54] Jeff Sieh: And, and everything’s different for a, a bunch of, for, for different people. So, showing your mistakes can actually [00:29:00] help people, you know, not make the same mistakes later on. One of the things, this is from Sean, from, but mostly Disney says people love my mistakes to the point that I made it into a t-shirt and part of my brand.

[00:29:11] Jeff Sieh: I think that’s genius. Like, because you’re, you are going through something that people want to get where you’re at, and if they see the mistakes you make that just endears them to you, so much more. And I think like, once again, I’m gonna go back to live because I’m gonna screw up the way I say things.

[00:29:26] Jeff Sieh: I can’t. I mean, I’m gonna, you know, pro pron, pron, pronunciate things wrong. Um, and. But, and AI can’t do that. They, they can’t, it’s not gonna be able to do these things. It’s not gonna be able to pull up comments and know that I have, I’ve seen, you know, Sean at Momentum the last three times, Dustin, and, you know, I was back when he used to wear his Red V-neck everywhere.

[00:29:47] Jeff Sieh: Like, I know these people. And so we have this connection and, and live just, I think is a way to bring people together. So I’m gonna continue to think that’s gonna just really, hold value as we move forward. But, speaking of value, because [00:30:00] this, the surface level stuff won’t cut through and value is shifting from generic takeaways to kind some of these behavior changing content.

[00:30:08] Jeff Sieh: Like, we want you to make this change in, in your behavior because of the, what we’re teaching you. How do you think creators can identify and, and deliver that deeper value? Like what signals tell you a piece of content is really and truly impactful?

[00:30:23] Paul Gowder: Oh, this is tough. I, but I think we have to start looking past those vanity metrics and not worrying if our piece of content got, you know, 10,000 views or a hundred thousand views or, or whatever. I, I, I think that’s still important to watch and, and know like what’s hitting and, you know what the algorithm loves from you, but now we have to start looking at. How it affects other people. And that’s tougher on social media, which is why I love email, because when I ask a question or when I put something out and I get replies and people tell me directly in an email because I’ve built that relationship with them, that’s one of the ways that I know that I, I actually put something out as [00:31:00] value.

[00:31:00] Paul Gowder: so I think it’s important to start asking for feedback more, as you build that trust and that relationship, and start watching the, you know, the open rates, the click through rates, all that kind of stuff. But, you know, as, as I say in, in some of my talks, replies are greater than, than a click. So look for ways that you can get feedback.

[00:31:18] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. getting feedback is one of the best ways and one of the most hard, the hardest ways personally, to like a lot of, we get really defensive when we get feedback, but that should be a signal for us to really, like, okay, that’s a, a thing to learn from and actually become better. It’s hard, it’s not natural because, our lizard brain jumps up when we start getting attacked.

[00:31:38] Jeff Sieh: We, we feel like we have attacked and we have to either fight or, or run away. And so. Training yourself to really listen and pull nuggets. You don’t have to take everything, but pull those nuggets of, oh, you know what? I should have been clear on that point. That would’ve made more sense. And just kind of take it to heart and internalize it a little bit and not worry about getting so defensive.

[00:31:55] Jeff Sieh: And I’m talking to myself here.

[00:31:57] Paul Gowder: and building a relationship with your community and your [00:32:00] readers that they can email you, something like that or message you. So you have to be, you know, you have to be more inviting and more open, or otherwise you’re not, not gonna ever get feedback for, you know, just recently I’ve had several email or people email me some things I messed up as we were, you know, the new year.

[00:32:16] Paul Gowder: I still had like 20, 25 listed on the website and several places. And I’m very, very thankful that my readers think enough of me to message me that. And, you know, if I see a web, a mistake on a website, I, I don’t know that I’m gonna message the, the people from the website and correct them. But, you know, I’ve built enough relationship with, with folks that they were like, Hey Paul, by the way, you need to fix this before other people see it.

[00:32:37] Paul Gowder: I’m like, oh, you know, thank

[00:32:38] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is always good to have friends that, that are watching your back. one of the things that, uh, Danko from this article, once again, he, I think he’s on Substack. That’s how I found him. he does really long form articles, but he emphasizes learning how to learn, is gonna be super important and that no single skill skill will save you.

[00:32:56] Jeff Sieh: But learning quickly matters. And this goes back to, you know, pat [00:33:00] Flynn’s book, and we saw him speak about it at Crafted Commerce last year, lean Learning, which is a great book. So what do you think are some practical routines or mindsets that creators should adopt to stay, you know, adaptable in 2026?

[00:33:14] Paul Gowder: I, I, I think we do need to realize the mindset now, and us as creators have to do this too. Instead of maybe subscribing to a podcast and listening to every episode, we maybe need to be more selective and go listening to an episode of a podcast that helps you with what you’re working on right now. Same thing with YouTube channels.

[00:33:31] Paul Gowder: I, I think when we, when we have a skill, and this is what Pat talked about when we saw him at Craft and Commerce, is if I need to learn how to do something in email. I’m gonna go find that, maybe use ai, maybe use whatever, and I’m gonna go learn that skill right now. And I, so we have to think about that and build our content and, and be prepared for people to not digest every single piece of our content, but they’re going to be looking for needs.

[00:33:57] Paul Gowder: So I think that’s like building content pillars [00:34:00] is gonna be real important. Um, that’s one of the things a lot of SEO people are talking about now that AI and Google is now looking for, a, a page that I, I think the example I saw on a video yesterday, like if you are reviewing shoes. That you have a, here’s my overall review of shoes, but here’s my page on running shoes.

[00:34:20] Paul Gowder: Here’s my page on hiking shoes, here’s my page on walking shoes. And they all relate to each other. That’s the kind of stuff we have to start building, is these content pillars, so that when people do have a need, they can, they can find that piece of content easily and then see all the other stuff related to it.

[00:34:35] Paul Gowder: Because, you know, I, I know for me, I don’t subscribe to podcast and listen to every episode anymore. I just, I don’t have the time, because I’m, well, one ’cause I’m not commuting anymore, but now I’m being very selective on what I listen to.

[00:34:47] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And, and I think for me, and this goes back to learning how to learn is my thing is to read books, but maybe not in your like marketing niche or you know, like for now I’m diving into books on creativity, which got [00:35:00] me into, you know, some other types of books and even some fiction novels that I’m reading.

[00:35:04] Jeff Sieh: You know, all those stuff that’s all goes into your mind that you can share with your audience by coming up with new connections between. Different things like, you know, you’re a big Star Wars fan, you could pull stuff because you love Star Wars. and, and talk about that. Like Mike Alton does a great job in his newsletters he’s a big history buff and so he’ll pull stories from history to teach a lesson about like marketing or branding or something like that, which I find really interesting because I like history too.

[00:35:33] Jeff Sieh: And so there’s a connection that we have in that way as well. So I think, thinking about ways and not being scared to waste time on going down some of those paths that interests you, that you can make connections and share with your audience later. I think that’s one of the things that it’s gonna really help, uh, moving forward to become more real, more authentic, is finding new ways to combine things up.

[00:35:54] Jeff Sieh: Like we talk about repurposing all the time, but like repurposing ideas that may be from like, one of my [00:36:00] clients has is, makes chocolates. So what kind of. You know, things about like tempering chocolate, could I bring in and share with my audience that would make sense to them that might teach ’em something new and, you know, something that hasn’t been done before.

[00:36:12] Jeff Sieh: because given AI’s, you know, flood of this generic content, like how do you think creators should rethink their content calendars? Like instead of those five tips posts doing some more long form storytelling or analysis, like you do a good, great job with putting your stuff about, um, I remember I was reading things that are offensive that I did not know about to Native Americans, like some terms that have been appropriated and all that stuff Like that was really great for me because I had no idea and you had it all in one spot.

[00:36:41] Jeff Sieh: So how can we create stuff like that in our content and our storytelling analysis? Or, or, or what, say you when we’re creating our content

[00:36:48] Paul Gowder: I mean, I think some of those, those videos like the five tips on, you know, Ecamm or things like that are, are still good and I think people will listen. What I’m thinking about, especially on Facebook, is I’m thinking [00:37:00] about, I mean, do we remember when we first started posting on Facebook, everybody was posting a picture of what they ate that day they were posting, Hey, by the way, I just went for a walk.

[00:37:08] Paul Gowder: hey, I just went and watched this TV show. I I, I don’t think we’re gonna go back quite to that, but I, I think we’re gonna go back to, Hey, I, I stayed up tonight and I watched the, latest episode of the Pit, and this scene was really cool and it, it connected with me because of this. What did you think about it?

[00:37:25] Paul Gowder: I think it’s that kind of, more off the cuff content that we have to start thinking about and posting more, and then mix in our more planned out, more professional type content. Because it, if we post just the, the beautiful content, I just don’t think it’s gonna resonate with people. They’re, they’re gonna scroll past it, if that’s all you post.

[00:37:44] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, we’re gonna have to do a, uh, pit watch party for season two at podcast. ’cause I think it comes out with that week when we’re there.

[00:37:50] Paul Gowder: it started last night.

[00:37:51] Jeff Sieh: oh, it did. Oh, okay. So I’ll see you guys later. I’m outta here.

[00:37:54] Paul Gowder: We, I, we didn’t watch it yet either.

[00:37:56] Jeff Sieh: so this, so here’s a great example of taking something [00:38:00] and then kind of taking it to the next level or repurposing it and doing something.

[00:38:03] Jeff Sieh: This is from, uh, Sean, from, but mostly Disney skills. I also ran a contest because I’m a terrible proofreader for folks, and they found their, his mistakes. So the person who found the most mistakes got a free t-shirt. So that’s a genius way of activating your community, getting something done you need to be done, but also acknowledging, Hey, I am a big failure at, at spelling and proofreading.

[00:38:24] Jeff Sieh: I need your help. So I think that’s genius. Sean. thank you for sharing that. So, the, when we talked about value shifting and you know, that kind of things, but I wanna know, Paul, what does building this unique point of view. Look like in practice, especially for, you know, like let’s say a lot of creators are doing the like, Hey, here are five tips to do this, those listicles that they used to do.

[00:38:46] Jeff Sieh: So how can we, how can you help creators transition from just doing informational post to that transformational type of content?

[00:38:54] Paul Gowder: so I, I go back to what I was, you know, I’m watching Gary Vee talk about that instead of niching down, you [00:39:00] are the niche and so. We have to draw upon what brought us here. You know how we got here. we all have a particular background. We all have a particular point of view.

[00:39:09] Paul Gowder: And if somebody’s following you or reading your content, it’s because they have related to you in some way. So you have to start leaning into, leaning into you. I, I, I loved, when we were at Momentum and, uh, the lady from Cake Bake, she said she is unapologetically, audacious, right? And I think we have to lean into that.

[00:39:29] Paul Gowder: And somebody at CEX said, embrace your crazy, I think was what they talked about, or em embrace your, your, uniqueness. Yeah. If you are super into woodcarving, I think you need to talk about that more. if you are a big sports fan and you’re, you know, follow the Eagles, rich, from, Pennsylvania, I, I, you know, I think he’s a big Eagles fan. Talk about that more. it doesn’t have to be your entire identity, but you have to start sharing those kinds of things. yeah, I I, I think it’s gonna be more about you as a person now instead [00:40:00] of just your content.

[00:40:01] Jeff Sieh: I met Brandon Washington at Creator Camp this year. Go follow him on Facebook because I think he does a really good job of posting about his video production and his, you know, kind of his processes of his workflows, which are brilliant. But he mixes it up, with, he’s a big LSU fan, so he’s posting a lot about LSU football and college football.

[00:40:20] Paul Gowder: Go follow him. He does it in such a way that it’s really good and engaging, even if you’re not an LSU fan and not being a, oh my God, another piece of content about college football. Yeah. Yeah. He’s doing a really good job with it.

[00:40:33] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, he was a great speaker too. That was a lot of

[00:40:34] Jeff Sieh: fun to, to see him speak. So, we’re gonna talk in this last section about email and community live video stuff. We’ve kind of touched on a little bit. But I wanna know, let me know in the comments wherever you’re watching from because, this is really interesting to me ’cause there’s always ones I can find.

[00:40:48] Jeff Sieh: Are you part of any online community that you actually are active and participate in? Like, not just a stalker, not just like you, uh, signed up for this Facebook group and you haven’t gone back in, but like one you really participate [00:41:00] in? There’s a couple for me, like Momentum, I don’t dive in there as much as I, I, I should, but I usually see all that content.

[00:41:05] Jeff Sieh: I try to make Lou thing when he does it and I’m free on Wednesday, Dave Jackson Saturday. I’m always usually there watching his show about podcasting. Uh, it’s a live show, like this one. I just really like the people there and I learn something every, every day. Sean, when I see him stuff, and he’s usually doing it at night, uh, from, but mostly Disney.

[00:41:23] Jeff Sieh: I like to watch his content and he’s got a great show. Your stuff, of course your, your newsletter from powwows and on the go. The, the, your personal branding, um, kind of community and then like, uh, Jay Klaus, I’m in his mastermind as well, so those, I mean, there’s all sorts of ’em, but those are the kinda the ones that I’m like actively I think, participating in.

[00:41:41] Jeff Sieh: What about you? Paul, are there certain ones that You’re

[00:41:43] Paul Gowder: Definitely, lose,the hub, which is people that have been to Momentum. That Facebook group is really good. I, I enjoy going in there. I’m in a couple of Facebook groups from Media vn, which is, people who provide the advertising and sponsorship for, for my website. there’s a couple of really good community, uh, Facebook groups for that.

[00:41:59] Paul Gowder: but also [00:42:00] like, so inside of the Media Vine Facebook group, a a smaller group of us formed, a mastermind. And so over on my own community, we have a, a place for discussion and we meet on video every other week. and that has been super, super great to, for that, you know, it’s like 15 of us that we can engage and kind of have discussions and stuff.

[00:42:19] Paul Gowder: yeah, I, I love doing that. So think about that too, like if, if you go to conferences or you’re engaging with people, don’t be afraid to, you know, form your own mastermind or your own little private Facebook group. These things can be super powerful.

[00:42:32] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I’ve been a part of a mastermind with Eric Fisher and Anthony Witt since we went to Pod Fest San Diego back in 20. We’ve been doing it for over 10 years, like it’s almost, almost 15 years now. Every Monday we meet. So, don’t, yeah, don’t be scared and, and go looking for it. And Paul does a great job of this when he goes to conferences, like he’s got a plan, he’s just not showing up like me.

[00:42:54] Jeff Sieh: He goes and has a plan of who he wants to meet with, conversation he wants to have. So, make a plan, like when you go to your [00:43:00] next conference, like, Hey. And it doesn’t have to be like, say you’re gonna be a 10 year or 15 year commitment, you can say like, Hey, let’s do it for like two months and see if it gels.

[00:43:08] Jeff Sieh: If not, and, and be, it’s okay to disband. It’s not a big deal. But, there’s a lot of power that comes from meeting together. So, on this last section I wanted to ask you, because of your experience with powwows.com, ‘ ‘ cause it, it really does, that community shows the enduring power of a community that people really wanna be a part of.

[00:43:26] Jeff Sieh: So in a world where platforms are like noisier, you know, Facebook groups is a mess, a lot of this AI driven stuff is, is kind of getting crazy. Why is community still a core D differentiator for creators and especially your business ball?

[00:43:41] Paul Gowder: community has always been the heart of powwows.com, whether it was in the old days, and Lou and I always reminisce about v bulletin in the, the old days of forums or when we moved to Facebook and we have, we have Facebook groups now, or email community has always been that, that thing that continued to bring people back.

[00:43:59] Paul Gowder: [00:44:00] So again, I think you have to change your mindset of what community is. Community is not a platform. Community is people who feel some type of connection with you and your content. And like recently, I, I’ve opened up for powers.com. We have a Mighty Networks community now. our Facebook page, 1.6 million followers.

[00:44:17] Paul Gowder: Our Facebook group, our main one, 130 ish thousand people. I have, I think we’re we’ll hit 300 people on our Mighty Networks community this week, probably. the engagement on that I’m already seeing blows away the Facebook group because, I mean, Facebook groups were great when they started and there’s still some good ones, like we just mentioned some good ones.

[00:44:39] Paul Gowder: But as they get big, you don’t get notifications, you don’t, you don’t feel as authentic inside of them.

[00:44:45] Jeff Sieh: you’d rather have those 300, highly active members in your group than that big monstrous. Yeah. Got it.

[00:44:50] Paul Gowder: Yeah, it, it’s been, it’s been really cool. And like, I missed a few days of going into the community, when I had the flu and wasn’t feeling good, but seeing the, the [00:45:00] app on my phone just like tick and, okay, there’s 15 notifications, there’s 20 notifications, there’s 30 notifications. I’m like, wow, people are still talking and they’re having connections.

[00:45:08] Paul Gowder: Even the feedback I’m getting, you know, ’cause I’ve been asking them as, because we’ve only been open, two and a half months, is like, how is this for you? What do you like about it? And everybody that responds is saying, we feel like we’re having real conversations here. So people are looking for that.

[00:45:24] Paul Gowder: Again, you know, the ai, the polished, you know, going back to my daughter, she wants that CD player and I think it’s because she’s tired sometimes of just streaming. she wants that more tangible feel. And that’s what some of these communities can do for you. I

[00:45:37] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I think that’s really true. It’s funny ’cause uh, speaking of our, our community here uh, Dustin says, you guys inspired me so much. I’m writing an email to my community right now. So there you go. That’s great Dustin. one of the things that you know, we kind of touched on the live content and like these raw streams, interactive q and a, uh, and we’re testing it right now, both Paul and I, now you can actually stream [00:46:00] vertical on YouTube shorts by clicking a button.

[00:46:03] Jeff Sieh: So if you’re over on YouTube and you see us on shorts on your phone, we’d love to know if it’s working. ’cause I have no idea. but those unpolished moments are kind of resurging. So what format changes are you seeing that help live content? Like, ’cause you do live streaming, you live stream, all your powwows.

[00:46:18] Jeff Sieh: what do you think helps live content feel more meaningful and less just like another polished broadcast that you could get on, you know, the cable channels.

[00:46:27] Paul Gowder: Yeah, that’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about. Uh, our powwow live streams aren’t gonna change a whole lot this year because there’s only so many. It’s, it’s an event production, right? So there’s only so many ways we can. Show a powwow. but for like the show I do on a weekly basis, I, I’m changing how I do that.

[00:46:43] Paul Gowder: in previous years, I tried to do a show where I had different segments and I, I waited until I had an interview or some kind of topic, to put, put an episode out and, and wanted it to be that more produced thing. And so in 2026, I am going, I’m committing on [00:47:00] powells.com. I’m just going to go live once a week and just talk with the community.

[00:47:06] Paul Gowder: I’ll have like, you know, here’s what’s happening this week, here’s the changes, that kinda thing. But it’s gonna be more of a, just an open forum. Then if I have an interview or, or a guest or something, a special piece of content, I’ll put that out as a separate video. So I’m gonna use Live Now just to, I’m really switching it to be, you know, like our friend Lou does, you know, he does a live show every Wednesday night.

[00:47:26] Paul Gowder: It’s not polished, it’s not produced, it’s not his podcast episode. It is a different piece of content where he just engages with the community and, and so I’m looking to do more of that this year too.

[00:47:37] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. He has structure. Like he’s not just

[00:47:39] Jeff Sieh: turning on and, and guessing he’s got like a plan and what they’re gonna talk about and he, he actually pushes that out when he is, when he has his post about the, the live show. So you have to have some structure, but you don’t have to be like, like, okay, I’ve gotta, okay, here’s a, a wipe and now this segment and this.

[00:47:53] Jeff Sieh: Now I do segments ’cause it’s easy for me to repurpose and it keeps my crazy brain in line. But we go off [00:48:00] so much. Connor will tell you that like all the time. And then, one of the things, this is a, a great point from Sean. He goes, I think my favorite thing is when I’m doing the live podcast and the chat starts having their own conversations.

[00:48:11] Jeff Sieh: It just makes me feel like we’re a real group and everybody is hanging out. I think that’s the goal for any anything. The ones that I mentioned like Dave Jackson, show that that is true. It’s happens on this show. I mean, rich and some other people we were talking, a minute ago. So I think it’s really, really cool when that stuff’s happened.

[00:48:28] Jeff Sieh: But, this last question before we wrap things up is kind of your bread and butter. It’s email and email is often described as the one place where creators own the relationship. So in terms of authenticity and relationship building, how should email strategies kind of evolve in 2026?

[00:48:47] Paul Gowder: I’ve, it is the same thing I’ve been saying for the last year. Stop focusing on what you’re gonna send out for your weekly broadcast. Stop focusing on, I feel like some of these weekly, weekly broadcast that [00:49:00] people send, it, they’re just shouting at their, their audience. Here’s my newest podcast episode.

[00:49:04] Paul Gowder: Go listen to it. Here’s my newest YouTube video. Go, listen, here’s my newest blog post. Go read it. And we have to shift to like the emails. You are, you’re writing. We have to start writing emails like we’re having conversations. It doesn’t have to be this polished thing. It, it can be right. But like for me, I’m putting this thing at the top where it’s my personal note.

[00:49:23] Paul Gowder: That’s what people are looking for and they’re not. They, they don’t want to get another email from Amazon telling them, Hey, I think you’re, you would like, these are related products. Yeah. Like you said earlier. Yeah. I, I still want those in my inbox and when I need them, I’ll go look for ’em. But God, I, if people start seeing my newsletter as something that they’re just gonna store in a folder and they’ll go read it when they need it, we’ve, we’ve failed.

[00:49:44] Paul Gowder: Right. It needs to be this relationship type email so that people want to read it when it comes out. yeah. We, we really have to shift that. And so instead of focusing on your broadcasts, and if you do write them conversational and be more. [00:50:00] Text base. But I, I really think that the key here is, is focusing on building more sequences, building more opportunities to take people through an entire story.

[00:50:10] Paul Gowder: you know, like I was working with some people this week on how, on how to build a sequence and what is a sequence. It’s just a serialized piece of email, that you use kid or whoever to build this, uh, series of emails. But if you’re struggling with that, just go to Chachi PT and, and put your website in and say, Hey, what kind of sequences can I build?

[00:50:27] Paul Gowder: So our friend Connor Brown does a great job. He’s building some incredible email series around his content. He had the series about, Halloween hard nights, and it, it had a PDF that went with it. But he, that was a series of emails where he talked about Halloween hard nights. I think he’s doing one about cruising now. If you can build these things that provide value in a series of emails where you’re talking conversationally, where you’re telling, Hey, here’s my experience on a cruise and here’s why I think you should do this and this, I, I, that’s going to be much more engaging and [00:51:00] keep readers, opening your emails, keeping them in that list more than just shouting at them.

[00:51:05] Paul Gowder: I have a new podcast. Go listen to it.

[00:51:08] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. The other thing is don’t be afraid, like we’ve talked earlier to ask questions, right? Like Paul does a great job of that and you know. It’s not overwhelming. Sometimes you won’t get any answers and sometimes you’ll get a bunch and you’re like, okay, why? Why did that resonate? So take note of that when it does resonate and like, okay, what kind of questions or what kind of topics do I need to talk about that is gonna activate ’em?

[00:51:28] Jeff Sieh: Like I, like I just did. So that’s one of the things Paul taught me is like, don’t be scared to ask questions in your email because people wanna talk. They want to tell you what they think. So, make sure you guys do that. So this has been awesome, Paul, as always, so much more we could have talked about.

[00:51:42] Jeff Sieh: But I wanna give you a chance to let people, uh, know where they can follow you, find you, all the stuff that you have going on. So the floor is now yours.

[00:51:50] Paul Gowder: Thanks. So if you are looking to go to your first powwow, they’re open to the public. I always tell people this, please go visit. it is a complete cultural immersion and the public is welcome. [00:52:00] So you can check that out over at pows.com/powwow 1 0 1. And since I mentioned that I am trying to build my community, go check that out at on the way community.com.

[00:52:10] Paul Gowder: if you, and if you wanna just know more about me, Paul gatter.com is where you can go and learn more about what I’m doing.

[00:52:14] Jeff Sieh: uh, for you guys, listen Paul Gowder dot com. Uh, gower’s spelled G-O-W-D-E r.com. So go check him out. And once again, I would love for you guys to sign up for, we talked about email for my email, and join the email community we have over there at Jeff C.

[00:52:28] Jeff Sieh: Dot com slash news. good stuff coming this year. I’ve got some great, ideas and articles that are already in the works, so make sure you guys go to jeff c.com/news. And thank you to our sponsor, Ecamm. Find out more of them. You can go to Ecamm dot com slash jeff. You can save 15% on your first purchase by using Code Jeff 15.

[00:52:47] Jeff Sieh: They’re amazing. Check them out on Facebook. they’re very, very helpful. If you have any questions and ask, and also you can ask me any questions you have as well through my email or, or wherever. I’ll be more than happy to answer those. But Ecamm dot com slash jeff. thank you guys [00:53:00] so much.

[00:53:00] Jeff Sieh: Thank you, rich. Thank you Sean, Dustin, everybody who stopped by, ask questions. Thank you, Paul for being here, and we’ll see you guys next time. Bye everybody.