The Proffitt Podcast
Are you thinking about starting a podcast? Launching a YouTube channel? Repurposing your old blog content into something fresh? Hi, I'm Krystal - host of "The Proffitt Podcast." And I'm happy to say you've come to the right place!
Business owners and content creators dream of building a platform where they can connect deeply with their audience, and marketing feels easy. But I also know what it's like to feel confused and overwhelmed.
Join us weekly as we strip down those processes and remove all the overwhelm with new tips, simple strategies, and great conversations with creators like you. Tune in to hear how I help creators start, launch, and market their content confidently. The motto here is, "We all have to start somewhere."
The Proffitt Podcast
Why Do Podcasters Ignore Their Audience?
Is your podcast growing as quickly as you'd like? If not, you might be overlooking the most powerful growth engine available to you—your existing audience. In this eye-opening episode, I tackle the surprisingly common tendency among podcasters to create content without fostering meaningful connections with listeners.
Drawing from my experience coaching hundreds of podcasters, I explore what I call "the audience blindspot"—that tendency to focus exclusively on content creation while neglecting the relationship-building that transforms casual listeners into devoted fans and eventual customers. Through personal stories and practical examples, I demonstrate how simple engagement strategies like listener shout-outs create powerful psychological connections. Remember that rush when someone you admire mentions your name? Your listeners crave that same validation.
We dive deep into actionable engagement habits that won't overwhelm your production schedule: responding to messages consistently, soliciting feedback that shapes future content, featuring listener questions, and establishing regular engagement rituals. These practices signal to your audience that they're valued participants in a conversation, not passive consumers of a monologue. The most successful podcasters understand that growth doesn't require millions of downloads—it requires meaningful connections with the people already investing their time in your content.
Whether you're just starting your podcasting journey or looking to reinvigorate an established show, this episode provides the blueprint for audience engagement that feels authentic rather than obligatory. The transformation begins with a simple mindset shift: your audience isn't just a number in your analytics—they're the lifeblood of your podcast and deserve to be treated as such. Ready to stop broadcasting and start connecting? This episode shows you exactly how.
🎧 Free On-Demand Training:
Ready to grow your podcast, stay consistent, and finally start monetizing? Watch my brand-new training, The Podcast Growth & Monetization Blueprint: What’s Working Now, and get a sneak peek inside my private community, Podcasters Connect — plus exclusive access to our custom AI podcast assistant!
👉 Watch now: krystalproffitt.com/growth
Click the "Send Krystal a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! (Pssst...we'll do giveaways in upcoming episodes so make sure you leave your name & podcast title.)
why do podcasters ignore dot, dot, dot. Right, like all the things that I have seen in helping hundreds, if not thousands, of podcasters across the world. Like what am I noticing all the time? And the first one that we have to tackle is why do podcasters ignore their audience? Oh, my gosh, like this is one of those that it had to be the very first topic that we covered, because I see this so often where people are saying my podcast isn't growing, I'm not enjoying it the way that I thought I was going to, and like they're just whining and complaining that their podcast isn't this thing that they thought it was going to be. But whenever I asked them well, when was the last time you got feedback from your audience? When was the last time you engaged with your audience? They give me this blank stare of what are you talking about, crystal? Why would I talk to my audience? Why are they there other than to be numbers in my download stats and the metrics that I track every month? Right, like I hear this all the time. And so we're going to talk about why do podcasters ignore their audience and what to do about it, so you don't fall into these same traps and make these same mistakes. So let's get right to it.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Profit Podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal Profit, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today, because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time-saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we? Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Profit Podcast. If we have not met, I am your podcast coaching content strategist, crystal, and I am so happy to be here with you today.
Speaker 1:Like I said, we are kicking off a brand new five-part mini series, and this is something that I have been looking at whenever it comes to what podcasters are doing, mistakes that they're making, and so it just felt right to talk about the things that you haven't even thought of, where it's because you're brand new, or if it's because you've been doing this for a while and maybe you're kind of just set in your ways and you're in that complacency space right, we all get there, and so I'm really shedding light on some things that we've been ignoring, that we absolutely cannot ignore anymore. So today we're starting with your audience. It is the first thing that we need to talk about in this brand new series. So let's talk about the audience blind spot. So most of you because, again, I've been in conversations with so many of you in our Podcasters Connect community on Instagram, in our email list on YouTube. We're in conversation pretty regularly with podcasters that are here hanging out with us, and I know how much you're focused on content creation, on editing, on planning, on getting your next great guest, on choosing your next topic, on picking a topic that will help you go viral. The content, content, content, content piece is so important and it is. It's why we talk about it so much around here. But you are ignoring your audience, you are not connecting with them, you are not doing really the steps that can help you develop that foundational relationship that can take your audience from just a casual listener of your podcast to an actual customer, to someone that wants to buy things from you in the future. So you're missing this connection piece and I think that it's again something that you absolutely cannot ignore. So what does this look like If you're just, you know, casually thinking well, crystal, how do I correct this? Like, am I doing this, am I ignoring my audience? So some of the things that you may not be doing that could help in the future is you're not doing any kind of listener shout outs.
Speaker 1:Like. If you listen to the last few episodes, you've heard me call out specific members of this audience, in this community, people I've worked with. I will name drop every once in a while, and I do that intentionally because I want you to connect with not only me. I want people to hear their name on the podcast yeah, that's really fun. Only me, like. I want people like to hear their name on the podcast Like, yeah, that's really fun. But I also want you, as another member of this audience, to connect with the people that I'm shouting out, whether it's they have a great podcast you should go listen to, or they have a great story you should go check out their website, go get on their email list. They're great for you. If you know, fill in the blank, like if you're not doing listener shout outs on a regular basis, then this is something that you could easily incorporate into your episode planning to make those connections more often.
Speaker 1:I used to do this and I actually learned this from Amy Porterfield back in the day when she would get a review on her podcast. It was on Apple podcast and she would read it and say, hey, you know, we have this great listener shout out. Or she would get collect comments from the community and she would read them on her show and I loved it so much. I mean, there's actually an episode I'll link to it where she gives me a shout out in one of her episodes. I want to say it's episode 271, but Jay, my video editor, will make sure we know exactly which one it is and we'll put it up here on the screen. But I remember hearing my name on her podcast and being just so like oh my gosh, amy Porterfield knows who I am. This is so fun. Like oh my God, it's like it makes a difference.
Speaker 1:Again, it's that connection piece that took me from someone who casually listened to her show to oh my gosh, she said my name on her podcast. This is amazing. The same thing happened I know I've mentioned this before, but on the Office Ladies podcast. This was my favorite podcast. I'm such a huge fan of the Office and they would do this like from time to time, like listener submitted questions or what do you wanna know about and then, whenever they got to the episode of the Office, they would talk about like, oh, you know, this person submitted this question let's talk about. You know what their question is. They read my name. They were like Crystal from Houston. You know what their question is. They read my name. They were like Crystal from Houston, you know, talked about blah, blah, blah. I was like, oh my gosh, like they said my name. They weren't like calling, they don't know me. They weren't calling my name out like, oh, crystal Prophet, we know who she is, she's a podcast coach. Like no, they didn't do any of that. They just said, oh, Crystal from Houston. And then they read my question. Then they answered my question on the podcast and y'all, I just about died Like it was so much fun for me.
Speaker 1:But again, that is how just those little pieces of that validation to your audience, like you're signaling to them. Hey, I see you, I know you're listening instead of just talking into the void, which I mean, let's be honest, that's annoying anyway, it's not fun and it's not going to be the thing that gets you excited about your content and keeps you coming back for more. So listener shout outs. If you're not doing this. Add this to your next episode. Like, how can you do that? And it is as simple as going back and reading off your latest podcast review. Keep it super simple. You don't have to go into all the details of everything. You don't even have to read off who it was from. You can. I think that's pretty cool because it's an actual public forum. So no one's going to get weird about. Like they said my name on the show and like no, they're going gonna be excited about it. So go read your last review for your show or on your YouTube channel or whatever it is like. Read it on your next episode and see if you get some sort of reply or reaction from the person that actually submitted it. So that's one thing that you can do. The other is and this is again the audience blind spot is ignoring DMs and emails from your listeners. Okay, I'm going to get on my soapbox for a second and then I promise I will get back down.
Speaker 1:I did this for a while in certain capacities and it was really let's just call out it was Facebook Messenger, because I was getting just a bunch of random people. I was joining these groups when I was first starting my online business. And then I realized, oh, everyone here is trying to sell me something and they're spamming me, and they're just like, hey, crystal, you know, let's connect about this Like we should collaborate on that, and it was just, I didn't love it, it didn't feel good. So, on that, and it was just, I didn't love it, it didn't feel good. So for a while I just ignored my Facebook messages, like totally, just that, they were non-existent. And then one day I opened it and I realized, oh my gosh, I have all of these requests, right, like you have all of these Facebook requests. And have I gone back and read every single one of them? Absolutely not. No, there's way too many of them.
Speaker 1:But what I realized is, oh, I was ignoring potential customers, I was ignoring people from my audience, and so what I did is I realized I need one form of communication that makes the most sense for me, that I could keep up with. But I can tell people over and over and over again, like this is how you can reach me, this is how you can reach out, and I just started telling people, you know, dm me on Instagram or send me an email, and those are that, like literally those are the places where I engage with my audience. Before we had our Podcasters Connect community. Now I tell people join the community for free and then send me a DM on there, because that's where you're going to get the fastest response from me. You can still email me, right, crystal crystalprofitcom? You can still email me, but I'm not going to be as responsive. We're just being completely honest. I am in Podcasters Connect every single day. I'm in there, I'm reaching out to people, I'm answering comments, I'm chatting people up. So that's where you're going to get the fastest response for me.
Speaker 1:But don't ignore your DMs and your emails. Like figure out a system that works best for you and make that your main call to action where you can tell people hey, you can reach me at this email address or go to this website and fill out this form, whatever that looks like for you, but don't ignore your people. I know this is so basic, but there's a reason why we're talking about why do podcasters ignore their audience? There's a reason for it. All right, the next part of having the audience blind spot is never asking for feedback.
Speaker 1:Y'all, please go listen to the episode where we talked about our annual audience survey, where I dive into why we, you know, did our audience survey, what the purpose of it was, what the outcome was. Because we actually have a freebie. It's uh. You can go download our audience report for 2025 and I'm going to show you exactly what we did. I'd give you the exact questions we asked our audience. You can go see the survey, like all the things, but there's a reason why I push so hard for you to ask your audience for feedback. It validates that they are there. Number one. It helps them feel seen and it gives them the ability to give you feedback and not just like what do you think of the show? Thumbs up, great, let's move on.
Speaker 1:Like, people gave me so much awesome feedback on products that we can create, on content that we need to talk about, and I'm being really honest, this is where some of the ideas for the episodes in this series they came from the stuff that I learned from our audience feedback. So it's super important. If you have not done this before, I have so much content on the YouTube channel. You can go check it out. You can go listen to the podcast and listen to the previous episodes we've done on this, but feedback is so important. Please do not ignore your audience, the ones that are truly super fans and they're listening to what you're doing. They will likely give you feedback and be excited and enthusiastic about it Again, because it gives them the opportunity to engage and interact with you, and that's what so many of us want to do anyway.
Speaker 1:Right, we just want to talk to the people that we're listening to and have that moment of like. Ok, they hear me, they see me. This is incredible, like you just feel so much more seen. But the other thing I want to talk about is OK, I've been guilty of this. Okay, so I'm pointing the finger, like I'm wagging the finger at myself. I have done this so many times, but I know a lot of you. I'm wagging my finger at you now. If you're not watching the YouTube video Like you do this too.
Speaker 1:You're treating your podcast like it is just a stage and not a two-way conversation. So I know this can get a little weird if you're like. Well, crystal, I create solo content. I'm literally not talking to anyone. I'm looking in a camera, I'm talking into a microphone. There's no one in this room with me. So what do you mean? Treat it like a stage instead of a conversation. I'm kind of on a stage yes, you are, but also you should know that there is someone listening to this On the other side. There's someone walking their dog right now and they have their earbuds in and they're just jamming along, listening to you, bopping their head, and they're either agreeing with what you're saying or they're like gosh, they're talking at me again. Let me turn this off and go listen to something that actually pulls me into a conversation that I want to be a part of.
Speaker 1:So I think that one thing I used to do is I really just used to hit publish and kind of move on, like I was checking the task off the list for the week, like what are my to-dos? Oh, I have to go record an episode, and I was almost verbatim just reading a five steps to do X, y and Z Step one, da da da. Step two da da da. At the end, make sure you subscribe. Like it was not compelling, it was not compelling at all. I was not doing any kind of shout outs, I wasn't talking to an audience, I was just checking a box, and maybe that's what we have to do to get started in the beginning. Right, I didn't know what I didn't know about creating really good content. But at the end of the day, and as someone who has recorded over 1500 episodes, at this point it is really important that you don't just hit publish and move on and not engage with your people and not answer your DMs or emails and just be like you know what I'm just going to create, because it's never going to help you grow your show and get better and, honestly, it's not going to give you any enthusiasm or energy to keep creating. So if you have any of these audience blind spots today, I'm not calling you out in a way that's like, well, you're a terrible person and you're never going to be a good podcaster. No, I'm calling them out so that you can be a good podcaster, a better podcaster, an amazing podcaster. That's why we're calling these out, so that you can look at these things and evaluate them in a different way, that you can look at these things and evaluate them in a different way, that you can change things, moving forward and make your podcast better for you and for your audience. So that's the audience blind spot.
Speaker 1:The second piece of this is creating a conversation and not just content. So we already kind of brought this up right Like you are on a stage, but it shouldn't just be a one-way conversation. So how can you include your audience, like, let's say, you do produce solo content for the most part. How can you bring your audience into that planning piece or getting them involved in episodes? Well, what if you did some polls to? You know you're on Instagram stories and you say, hey, I'm thinking about having these types of guests on in the future. Which one, like who's someone that you want me to interview? Or maybe you put options on there and say I'm thinking about and brainstorming episodes and these are four topics that I think I might cover. Which one is the one that's most important to you? Y'all this shocks me every time because I think it's one thing and it always ends up being something else. I'm like for sure they're going to pick number three, but then they end up with option two and I'm like, interesting, okay, that actually changes the course of the rest of my content planning I was going gonna do for the month because my audience is giving me feedback and it was really interesting.
Speaker 1:I was having a conversation with someone in our community recently and I was talking about how we survey our audience and everything and they gave the sweetest compliment. They were like Crystal, you do this in such a great way where you're constantly getting feedback from us, but you're actually implementing it. It was someone, I think, that had heard like their name getting shouted out on an episode or in an email and they were like you're actually doing it. I'm like, yeah, because it works. Like me, getting engaged with this audience, this community, helps me come up with better ideas, but it also makes the content come more to life. Because if I was just saying this is my experience and this is what I think you should do, and me, me, me, I, I, I it's kind of boring after a while. Let's just be really honest. I don't want to talk about myself the whole time. You don't want to hear me talk about myself the whole time, and it's not going to be something that is sustainable for the long call.
Speaker 1:So what can you do, right? What's another way that you can include your audience, feature your listeners and your content right? Like, above and beyond just giving a shout out for someone that gave you a podcast review, how can you give specific examples of people that you've worked with previously and you can keep them anonymous? Y'all you don't have to say, oh, you know this person from this podcast or this person in our community. Like you don't have to sit there and shout out everybody's name, because that person that you're talking about, that is listening to your podcast, will perk up and say, oh, she's talking about me, oh, he mentioned my name, oh, that's me, oh, that's my story, that's my example and that's the piece that you're using to make the connection, not all the names and the specific call outs or someone from this city or the person that lives here in this neighborhood. Like you don't have to get so personal with it. Like, keep it anonymous if you want to, but do something to involve your audience in a big way.
Speaker 1:Tools that can help you do this Kit. Y'all know I love Kit for my email service provider. It's what I use. Go to crystalprofitcom, forward slash kit. Yes, we're a proud partner and affiliate with them, but it's what I use for my email list. So I'll send an email ever so often. About once a month I will pull my audience like, hey, what do you need more help with, or what are some of your ideas? Or I will explicitly call out hit reply and tell me X, y and Z and it's really helpful. So I involve people with that.
Speaker 1:The other way that you can do this is fan mail. So, again, I love Buzzsprout and they have a feature called fan mail. Go to crystalprofitcom, forward, slash Buzzsprout and you can actually go on our YouTube channel and see how we use fan mail, what that looks like. But people will send me stuff and I give fan mail shout outs. If you haven't, people will send me stuff and I give fan mail shout outs. If you haven't heard this before, you can go.
Speaker 1:If you're listening on the audio version, it says send Crystal a text message. You can click that button, send me a text message right from your phone and I will give you a shout out in a future episode. We actually have these fan mail shout out segments and that is there for a reason because I am using it to engage with you. I want to hear your opinions, I want to hear your feedback. So if you've never submitted a fan mail shout out, please do that, like just right now. Just hit pause, go to where you're listening to this, where it says send crystal text message. Click that button and send us something.
Speaker 1:I would love to give you a shout out. Include your name, include your podcast, your YouTube channel, like we would love to give you a shout out on the show. So I wanna know if you're watching this right now, actually, like this is a perfect little segue. That was unintentional, by the way, but that worked out really, really well. I wanna know, like, have you done this before? How have you included your audience and your content? If you have some other ideas, like we would love to know. So, if you're watching on YouTube, put it in the comments. Or if you're listening on the audio, like send us a fan mail, send us a text message and say hey, crystal, you know I'm listening to number one. For why do podcasters ignore and we're talking about the audience Like, let us know, because I want to include you in a future episode.
Speaker 1:But, moving on, we are moving into segment three, and this is the last one that we really need to hit on today, and that is engagement habits that I want you to build over the course of your creator journey. So the first one is just starting each episode, or maybe ending each episode, with a call to action to have a connection point with your audience. So, whether it's, you know, reach out and send us a fan mail on Buzzsprout or send me an email, or send me a DM or whatever it is. Whatever makes the most sense for you and your content. Insert that CTA, because so many of y'all and again got up on my soapbox I don't think I ever really got down, because sometimes I'll say I got down from my soapbox, I'm still up here.
Speaker 1:I'm still up here for this episode, because so many of you will say, oh yeah, I meant to add that to my outline, or I meant to do that and I haven't done it, but I'll do it next time. I'll do it. I'll do it and really it comes down to and I know it's you just have to add it to your outline. Just add it to your outline. If you are someone that scripts yourself or you outline, you do bullet points, whatever it looks like, just add it in. Add it in, because you're not gonna remember to say it. Okay, like, let me just call that out. Like, we have the best intentions as podcasters.
Speaker 1:I have been doing this since 2018, and I still forget to say things if they are not written down, if they are not in my outline. Like, I have my outline right here. It's right off of my camera while we're sitting here recording today and I'm looking over every once in a while I'm like, okay, yep, yep, yep, hit all the main, the main key things we need to hit today. But if it is not in my outline, it's not going to get said. It will not get said. I will forget to say something really important, which is why I have a more robust outline.
Speaker 1:So, if you need that great, add your CTA at the very beginning, in the middle, at the end, wherever it makes the most sense for you, but have that connection point in every single episode. You can end it by saying, hey, make sure and send us a fan mail and let us know what you thought of the show. Or, if you're watching on YouTube, comment below and tell us what you thought about this video or what you wanna hear from us in the future. Or you could say it in the middle of a podcast episode. Actually, send me a DM on Instagram and let me know what you thought about XYZ. Like you could pause this, go back and read the transcript of everything that I just said and you could use those verbatim Steal these ideas. Y'all Like, don't sit there and think well, crystal does that I can't do it. Please go, do it. Go, go, steal all of the ideas that I'm sharing with you, because that's why I'm sharing them, because I want them to help you in your journey.
Speaker 1:Now the next piece, for another habit that you can do to help engage with your audience, is creating something that's a cadence that you can do on a regular basis. So a great example is you could do a listener shout out every single month. So I've had people tell me like well, I want to do podcast reviews, but what if I don't get new reviews regularly? What if I only get a few a year? Great, you will probably, in the course of a year, get 12 reviews. If that's all you get, then that is fantastic. You can do a listener shout out every single month. Even if you get multiple reviews one month, then that could be like you know what I'm going to save? That one that's going to be April's, that's going to be May's, that's going to be June's, and then you have your spotlight of the month every time you get a new review submitted. But it's something that can create that easy engagement where you are giving those shout outs on a regular basis. Put it in your Asana. Put it in your Asana, put it in your Google Sheet, like wherever you're keeping your content calendar, but put it in there that, oh, on that episode, I'm going to do a listener shout out. I'm going to do my monthly listener shout out and it's going to be this review, because, boom, I'm going to lift it up, put it in there and say this is the one that we're going to do, but create something that you can hold yourself to on a regular cadence, because then people are more likely to submit them.
Speaker 1:This is what I think people miss is they get nervous about sharing these ideas, or like reading a spotlight or reading fan mail, whatever, because they're like but what if no one else submits? Like, what if I read this one and this is the only review that I ever get? I'm like no, no, no, no. You're thinking about this all wrong. What you should do is read them. Read them often, because what that does is it encourages other people, like it triggers something in our brain. It's like, oh, crystal, read that review. I wonder, if I submit one, if she'll read my review too. So it actually encourages your audience to participate more whenever they see that you're actually going to read the thing that they submitted. So don't get nervous about this. Like, just do it. Like rip off the bandaid, make it happen, but find something that can work on a regular cadence for your show and your audience.
Speaker 1:The other one is engaging on Instagram stories, y'all. I try to do this, if not every single day, at least a few times a week. I will do something where I have a call to action, where it's like hey, vote on this, let me know in the comments on X, y and Z, or vote on the next slide. I'm gonna put up some options for wherever I want your input. But engage with your people. Engage, because you will be shocked at how many people really respond and make it really easy for them to respond. This is another thing I did recently. We did this promotion for a summit that I was on, and whenever I put all this stuff in there, it was a promotional email and I wrote in the email I said if you sign up for this, just reply to this email and say I'm in so I can make sure and go and see. You know that your registration went through and all this other stuff. So people responded to me and said I'm in and I was like awesome, they are responding. People will respond to you. You just have to make the ask. So make sure that you're making the ask on a regular basis and these small things, these little rituals that you can do inside your content, will make all the difference. And those shout outs are just super fun. So if you can say like, hey, sarah, I loved your message last week, thank you so much, it's just really fun to have those little pieces to make those connections with your audience.
Speaker 1:Y'all don't ignore your audience Like we're done. After today, after listening to this, after watching this, you are not going to ignore your audience anymore. Right, like, say it with me, I will not ignore my audience anymore. One more time, I will not ignore my audience anymore. You will do things that can completely blow your mind. Whenever you have these ongoing conversations with your audience, you're getting in touch with your people. It just makes your content that much richer and it makes everything that much better. So, to recap, your audience is your greatest asset. Do not ignore them. Do not ignore them. Do not ignore them. You cannot be a successful creator, a successful podcaster, a successful YouTuber if you ignore your audience. They are the lifeblood of all of your content. So do not ignore your people.
Speaker 1:The next thing is, you don't need millions of downloads or thousands of listeners. You just need to build this solid, foundational relationship with the people that are already showing up and paying attention to your content today, because those will be the people in the future that tell everyone else that you are their go-to expert. So make sure that you are paying attention to the people that are showing up for you today, right? Not the millions of people that could potentially show up tomorrow. What are you doing to connect with the people that are in your audience today? And then the last point I'll make is engagement just doesn't have to be complicated. Please don't overthink it. Don't overthink it, but it does need to be something that's prioritized, prioritized engaging with your audience. It will make all the difference.
Speaker 1:Okay, before we go today, I want to make sure that you know about our brand new on-demand training. It is all about the three-part series that we have. It's a three-part plan for integrating growth, monetization and connecting with your audience. This year, like in 2025, I go through everything that's working today. I don't want you to go check it out. Go to crystalprofitcom forward, slash growth and register for this free training because it's really good. Y'all it's really good. It's really good. I'm super proud of this training. It's one that I hadn't taught previously and I think you're going to find it really, really helpful. But that's all I have for you today.
Speaker 1:So, if this is your first time tuning in, welcome aboard, because buckle up. This series is going to get wild, and we talked about why do podcasters ignore their audience. We've covered it today. We've transformed. We are no longer going to ignore our audience after this episode. Right, we've transformed. We are no longer going to ignore our audience after this episode, right, deal, okay, so stay tuned. We're gonna have more about why podcasters ignore other things in their content and how we can overcome them. But make sure you hit that follow or subscribe button wherever you're listening and watching today and, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.
