The Content Crib Podcast

When AI Feels Fake, Humans Win #22

• Eric Anderson and Chris Grosse

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We unpack why audiences feel social feeds are fake and how that distrust opens a lane for creators who sound human. We share a simple, affordable setup to start a podcast, then dive into consistency, relevance, and why AI in healthcare needs trusted voices to drive adoption.

• minimal gear to start recording with clarity
• budget mics, webcams, and lighting choices
• Squadcast and Riverside for separate tracks
• define your why and target listener
• booking guests and setting a repeatable cadence
• relevance versus consistency for growth
• embracing ums and imperfection for trust
• social media skepticism and falling conversion
• authentic personal branding over polish
• AI healthcare adoption driven by outcomes and peers
• founders and clinicians aligning on real use cases
• selective relevance, not fame, as the goal

Let’s make a commitment to the audience. We’ll get a guest on the next one


SPEAKER_01:

I don't think it's necessarily going away, but the vast majority of people who are consuming social media content are beginning to believe that it's all fake and that it's a real it's it's a problem and these platforms know it and they know that yeah, you know, you have this many people looking, but the conversion that was once there, which they're social media is there to sell you stuff on a lot of different levels, and they're not seeing the conversion like they once did, and it's very concerning for these platforms. So we're back. It's now the aftermath of Thanksgiving, one week later, or almost a week later. How are you, Chris? How was your Thanksgiving?

SPEAKER_00:

We are back, yeah. I'm pretty good. Thanksgiving was good, only minimal uh in-law battles. We kept it to a dull roar, but it was good. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, it was great. It was great. Had uh family over, it was pretty low-key. Made a conscious effort to try to not eat too much, and uh I failed.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I just you know I had like one little plate, but it was uh mostly focused on multiple plates of dessert.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's uh yeah, that's unfortunately how it always goes, too. I I always kind of I'm not a huge turkey guy by any means. And so I eat that with with the with the hope of what's what's what comes in the form of a pie. That's usually how I phrase it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, exactly. I don't I don't think there's any uh any need to uh eat turkey on a holiday to me. It sounds a little I I'm pushing for the lasagna.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there you go. I like that.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll see. It's not happening yet.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I was gonna say, if you let me know how you get that to work because uh usually I I asked this Christmas, I've this Christmas, this Thanksgiving, I said, hey, why don't we do a prime rib or something like that? And I was told no. So there you go.

SPEAKER_00:

That sounds I mean I I make a killer horseradish cream if you ever need that recipe. Whoa. It's game changing. Man, yeah. We make we make a boneless rib every uh every Christmas.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, so do I. But you had me at horseradish, so I will definitely I'll send it over. Yeah, cool. I love it. Um but you know, I was gonna tell you, I I keep getting I get questions a lot. Well, not a lot, but you know, be maybe on on a on a bi-weekly basis or weekly basis about hey, I'm just gonna all right, I'm jumping in. I've been listening to Content Crib podcasts, I've been talking to you guys. What do I need to get to jump in? And I'm like, all right. So I I have a list ready that I send people of, hey, this is all you need to get going. And then there's also degrees of how much of a pro you want to look or how much of a uh you want to invest in it. So uh I thought, man, let's let's talk about that today a little bit. That's cool with you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, let's do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Yeah, because I mean it's it's it's this is really like so if you're watching us on YouTube, um, you know, Chris and I have really nice microphones and you know, we've got the whole headphone set up. Listen, if you've got a computer and you've got a laptop or you have, which of course you do, you have one of these, you're in business, and you can go for it. Start today. And whether that's personalized video, sharing your thoughts, sharing your message, whatever that looks like for you, you can do it and it's inexpensive, it's easy. And now with a with an iPhone, I mean, or an Android, if you're that green person in the group text world, uh, you can easily do it with an Android as well. So anyway, it's it's really easy. I have a laptop that when I started out, and I don't know about you, Chris. When I started out, I literally had a laptop and I put it on a stand up high and used that camera and away I went. That was it. That's all I had. And of course I had a phone. Then, you know, as I did things out and about in the world, I used a phone, but that was really uh how I got going. So how how about you? Where did you start?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh well I started with you actually, but you know, I had this mic I got on eBay, which has been working out wonderfully the last three years for different presentations and whatnot. I even keep it out of camera sight if it's you know a little pretentious for the moment. But you know, when we record the podcasts, I want to have the best audio quality, so I you know make sure I use it close to where I'm speaking. But I think you know, for a lot of people, the equipment's really not the barrier. I think it's the unwillingness to to let it rip, right? Like be yourself, sound human. It's you know, so cliche, but it's so true.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, you're 100% right. And you know, once once people start, then they kind of then I I get them coming back with, okay, what kind of microphone do you use? And I this is a I don't really have an example. I I have a much more expensive microphone, but this one is a uh a uh a Samsung one. I think I got it for like 99 bucks on Amazon or something like that. And this boom arm was like$30, and it plugs right into my computer and away I go. Now I have a um I I run my cam my camera's actually my my Sony EV10 with a lens on it that I run through that you don't have to do that in any way, shape, or form. But if you want to, that kind of gives me my blurred background here. Um, but most people just use a webcam and you get the same exact results that I get with my kind of bougie camera that I use.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I have the Sure 230 microphone and then a cheap$25 NexiGo camera on Amazon that works great. It does great with the audio, uh excuse me, with the uh lighting adjustments for different because not only the podcasts have different views of how the video looks, but all these different video call formats have different like Teams looks different from Google Meet, looks different from Zoom. Like I find that Google Meet, I know getting off topic a little bit, but no, no, go ahead, because I was gonna ask you. Most people are using it multiple reasons, right? So um Google Meet can be like darker. So I try to find a camera that has good lighting adjustment.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's smart because you're right. I was just I was gonna say, if you you you know your camera effects are gonna be very different whatever platform or whatever you're you're joining in, and and everybody's been on Zoom or Google Meet or Teams or whatever one is going on at that point in time, and it's uh it is very different. I always get the question of what kind of camera are you using? And I'm like, I just feed mine through a camera with a with a lens, so that's why I kind of get the effects that I do. But you don't in any way, shape, or form need that.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we talked about the equipment. Let's talk about how we get it recorded.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's very interesting because uh I'll let you take this because uh there's several different methods, but we like a couple different ones.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I like Squadcast seems to be working out great. I'm really enjoying that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Squadcast is good. I I you know I have people uh we which just makes me think about it. We also have Riverside that we never use. Uh we have Riverside is Riverside's nice too, and it's it's it works well. Um you know, we take this and we have an editor and kind of a production team. This is probably just one guy over in a different part of the world that does this the the uh editing for us. Um but one thing I liked about Squadcast is it kind of records two different tracks of people, so each person has their their recording and their track done for them, which is I guess in the world of editing a better thing. I don't I don't know why, but it is.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and and I think that the other big thing is if you decide to get going, whether or not you have you know a friend like uh we do here, uh, or you're just gonna record by yourself is you know the biggest challenge, and we run into it too, is the the guests. Getting guests on is super difficult. And then understanding what kind of guests you want to get on, and what is your goal? Is your goal for podcasts? Is it business development? Is it crafting your voice? Is it both? Is it networking? Is it just talking about a hobby, passion? Does it have something to do with your career? So I think identifying all those things probably first before you get into the equipment and software side of it. You know, what is your why? What is your why behind wanting to get on and talk about things? You know, we on the Content Crypto Podcast, we talk about personal branding, AI, tech, healthcare, uh, state of medicine, and you know, anything else that's going along going, you know, in terms of um business development or I don't know, turkey, I guess.

SPEAKER_01:

Turkey, horseradish. Yeah. Can you tell what I have on my mind after the horseradish talk? Yeah, I know you're right. I mean that's that's and as you move forward and everything you're listening to about us and you're saying to yourself, yeah, you're right. I need to share this or I need to share that. I mean just do it and make sure make sure whatever you do, you just start. I and and that's the biggest thing. And and you know, like it's so many people ask me, like, man, you've been doing this, you know. How did you how did you learn to do this and how did you learn to do that? And why did you just hit the red button and hit record and started? And it was really, really bad when I first started. It was extremely bad. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, you carried me for mine, thank God. I mean, I was like, what I've been I've been recording videos for years, but still it's just something about like recording and conversing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's different. It's uh it was so there's definitely a fear.

SPEAKER_01:

It's yeah, yeah, it's abnormal for sure. And you know, you do it, and as I always say to everybody, it's like, I don't know, man, I can't record a video. I'm like, well, you can walk down a hallway and talk to somebody. It's just just it's the same exact thing, it's just repetition of having the fear. Fear will always be there. Just learn how to embrace it and move on to the next thing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and then the other thing is is as you get you know started, you know, some of the statistics that come out about consistency, you know, I you can argue both sides of it, you know, consistency is key, or is it really relevance is key? I think you've got to be consistent and relevant. And so focusing on those two things are probably the most important, you know, because you want to drop episodes that people are tuning in for a reason, and you want to make sure you're delivering, you know, on that schedule that you, you know, that they're expecting, whether it's weekly, bi-weekly, once a month, once a quarter. But I mean, you're better off making sure it's quality over quantity, though.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, no, I I totally agree. And all that being said, it is not going to be great the first time you do it, and that's okay. I mean, I I you know it's the first I did a podcast for years that I think the first probably 30 or 40 episodes, I never went back and listened to it. And I purposely didn't go back and listen to it because I'd know I'd go, oh, that's bad. Oh, oh, that's terrible. I gotta change this, I gotta change that. And it's the same thing with anything you do. Just just record and do it. It's it's the vast majority of I'm gonna give everybody a I don't know, they probably already know this or maybe they don't. I'm gonna give everybody a tip. Nobody really listens in-depth to everything you say. Never. They just know that you said something to it, and the human brain, and we talk about this all the time, the human brain does not know where it received information or what medium it was or what method it was. It has it doesn't remember, it just remembers the information. Now you might remember where you were, but you don't say to yourself, you know what? I heard that on a CD in 1994. You know, you don't do that. You just know that that information was there and you you listened and you absorbed it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and you know, the reason why you started or thinking about starting the podcast isn't like technical, right? So it's that you know, you're terrified of sounding less polished than you do in writing, and that's a good thing, you know. It's called authenticity. And it's really the only reason anyone will listen past that episode one. You know, it's the same thing we do. We talk about we talk about personalized video. Don't worry about the ums and the you know the stutters or whatnot. That's just showing that you're human. And you know, the people that are going in the right direction, writing more human, sending videos. Uh it's gonna be the most remembered, you know, person in social media going forward with all this AI crap. That's constant.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, speaking of the AI crap, I've you know, the biggies like Alex Ramosi and Gary Vaynerchuk are talking about how social media is dying, that it's that that it's going away. So I'm gonna get controversial here. Um I don't think it's necessarily going away, but the vast majority of people who are consuming a uh consuming social media content are beginning to believe that it's all fake. And that it's a real it's it's a problem, and these platforms know it, and they know that yeah, you know, you have this many people looking, but the conversion that was once there, which they're you know, social media is there to sell you stuff um on a lot of different levels, and they're not seeing the conversion like they once did, and it's very concerning for these platforms.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, that is interesting. Yeah, keep going on that if you got some more.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, it's it's just I I you know probably need to get more hobbies, but I study all this stuff constantly, and uh I listened to a long thing that Alex Hormozy talked about, and I kind of see him as a you know, he he he gets it and he studies it way more than I do. And he just ever all of the stuff on social media is so fake and it's so AI driven at this point that you're kind of watching things and you're saying to yourself, is this real or is it not? And then it goes to, well, I don't really want to watch things that are not real. And that's why we we talk about all the time personalized videos and you messing up. It's not, you know, you're not creating a television show. You're creating your thoughts and your value, and you're sending it out to the world.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I was actually reading an article on Forbes and personal branding that came out a couple days ago, and they're talking about you know how the concept of personal branding has been around since uh Tom Peters' iconic 97 book, Brand You Manifesto. I haven't I think it was an article actually. I don't know. I I haven't read it, but I need to check it out. Um they're just saying how you know personal brand is now essential, and you know, there's ways to use AI, right, to help augment you or increase your creativity or format what you're doing or what you want to create. Um definitely do that, but make sure it's still as authentic to what you're doing, and at least you're making those efforts to build it because so many people aren't. Um but yeah, personal branding has always been about authenticity and that found foundation is just even more imperfect, me more important.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. No, I I I talk about it all the time with people, and you know, it's it's funny because we uh we work with clients that are trying to you know provide their thought leadership to the world and share their message. And you know, it's funny, like this week, I think we're at two or three different AI-based companies that are trying to bring their product to the marketplace, and we're helping them humanize what they're doing. And we're, you know, trying to have these founders who have these companies, these AI companies in in healthcare, present to the world who they are, what the value is, and they got to do it themselves because I I keep saying this over and over and over to people, you know, the AI bros tell you that all this stuff is, you know, they're it's gonna get so it's gonna get so good you're not even gonna have any idea, and it's that this is not real or this is this person's not real. And and I agree, so people are gonna be starving to go listen to people who are authentic. And that may become more physical meetups. I don't know about what that's gonna look like, but you're okay with your ums and your uhs when you're sharing your message.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, open AI can build the smartest model in the world, right? They can make but they can't make your oncologist or orthopedic surgeon trust it, right? That's the job of the person doing it, right? AI companies need a voice because their technology is only as valuable as how much it's adopted. An adoption rate requires a human face telling a story and explaining why it's gonna make their lives easier and it won't kill someone's patient. And AI companies speak in capabilities and healthcare speaks in outcomes. There's you need to talk about those outcomes as a user or as a creator that's you know been in the trenches with a certain product, and that takes a human to do that. And it's not just you know these AI producers or or builders or these comp you know these companies that are just out of touch with reality. You you need to translate you know fear of implementation into confidence, and that's only done by the end user and the human being.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, man, I couldn't have said it any better. That's really well said. It's it's gonna become more and more an issue for companies saying to themselves, hey, I want to start giving, you know, I want to I want to have value go out to the world here, and this is how I want to share it. They're gonna have to really understand how they're gonna share it because the clutter that I call the AI world, people are turning it off. And I know they keep saying, Oh, it's just gonna get so good that you're not gonna know. Well, again, what they're gonna do is they're not gonna listen at all, and that's the problem.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I mean, right now, AI stories written by these tech bros and fear-mongering journalists, and neither of them have closed a deal with, you know, a hospital CMO. You know, these AI companies need, you know, real-world people to rewrite the narrative to implement some of these, you know, and I'm specifically talking about AI healthcare products because that's the world we live in and what we see. Um, but they need practitioners to rewrite the narrative from this will replace you to this will save you.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's a and it's a fantastic augment and saves you time and allows you to do, you know, what it what it really does is allows you to do other things that are more pressing by using AI to do that. Yeah. And I use that's so perfectly said because the A the AI bros want to tell you, yep, your job's gonna go away next Tuesday. And yeah, well, if some of that happened, sure, but for the vast majority of us, no, it's not going to happen. It's going to be an augment to what you're doing in order to help you long term.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, it's specifically in healthcare, just because, again, that's what we do. It doesn't healthcare doesn't adopt new technology because it's innovative. It adopts it because someone they trust said, I use this and I'm still a good doctor. You know, AI companies can't give that permission. Only humans who've earned that can, and I've seen that with different products that have gone to market and failed. Um, and they've tried to add, you know, thought leaders and people and doctors in the space that they just weren't a good fit. They weren't really connecting with the audience, uh, mostly because they weren't involved in the development of the product and couldn't really demo it or explain truly why it was so great. And we're really we're just talking about, you know, all the time-saving things, which are good, but it doesn't really get down to the brass tacks of the products and you know how it really can give you money back, not just save money and you know make your days easier. And every AI company claims their tool will revolutionize medicine, but when you say this, like you're you're only worth more than you know the entire marketing budget that's saying this. Only you that uh is in in the in the trenches of using these things can tell that truth. Uh, you know, I really believe that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, it's very well said. And back to you know, in medicine or in healthcare, people adopt uh things from people they trust. It's it's kinda why they have surgeons and doctors get up on the stage in front of a mic and tell you all about what they're doing and why they're doing it and the products that they use. The reason they do that is because people trust that person and they're gonna adopt them and they don't They're not going to trust a fake AI person talking to them through a screen. At least not now. Will that change in the future? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it might. I don't know if we talk about it enough. Maybe we do, but personal branding is not about being famous. It's about being selectively relevant to the audience that you're trying to serve. And it's about the it's about the audience, not about you. And that means being known by the people who can influence what you're doing. So people that are concerned about writing online, starting a podcast, like we're, you know, we're talking about all the tools and need to do it. At the end of the day, they still probably have a little fear of like, well, I don't want to put my voice out there, or I don't want to, I'm not trying to be famous. But you're also motivated by other reasons. You want to, you know, pivot your career. You believe passionately about something, and you only you can tell that story. Well, that's a way to tell it. And you're not trying to be famous, you're trying to serve.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. No, it's it's provide value. It's what it's all about. Well, I think we're at that magic time where episode 22 is over, and uh we're in December, barreling towards uh the end of the year. So this should be should be uh a fun time of year here for the next uh three or four weeks.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, let's get a guest on for the next one. Let's make a commitment to the audience.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we're gonna do that. We've uh we've got lots of invitations out, and we're hoping that uh someone will take up take us up on it. So fingers crossed.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, thanks, Eric.