Is the Traditional Online Course Model Broken? Plus, We review Notebook LM

Explore whether the online course model is broken – from student burnout to engagement issues. Find solutions that actually work in 2025.

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The Show’s Main Transcript

[00:00:00.000] – Jonathan Denwood

Welcome back, folks, to the Membership Machine Show. This is episode 146. In this show, we’re going to be talking in the first half, is the traditional online course model is broken. Is it finished, broken? This started with a post I read from a guy named Dave Foy. He’s well known in the WordPress space. In the second half, we’re going to discuss and do a quick review of a Google product called Notebook LL, which I think is quite amazing myself, to see what Kurt thinks. So, Kurt, would you like to quickly introduce yourself to the new listeners and viewers?

[00:00:56.920] – Kurt von Ahnen

Yeah, my name is Kurt von Ahnen. I own an agency called Manananomas, and we also work directly with the great team over at WP Tonic.

[00:01:04.720] – Jonathan Denwood

He’s a bit tired. He was a bit adventurous over the weekend. He was mountain biking and walking all over Arkansas with his son. It all sounds a bit too stressful for me, but there we go. But before we go into… I hope he’s got our monthly sponsor’s notes up as well. But before that, we’ve got a message from one of our major sponsors. We will be back in a few moments, folks. Three, two, one. We’re coming back. Have you got your notes up, Kurt, for the sponsor?

[00:01:44.590] – Kurt von Ahnen

I do. I don’t even know if I need notes anymore, Jonathan. I think we’ve got this one memorized.

[00:01:49.080] – Jonathan Denwood

Oh, we probably have. Over to you, Kurt.

[00:01:51.900] – Kurt von Ahnen

Well, today’s episode is sponsored by Misterio LMS, and we’re pretty excited about having them. They’ve got a free version that’s not a trial. So it’s not limited. You get unlimited courses, lessons, and students, and it’s forever, with no credit card needed. So if you think about that, you could build your entire course business without being out of pocket for even a cent. However, they do have the drag-and-drop builder and quiz creation, and all that right there. They also have PayPal and Stripe in the free version. So if you’re ready for certificates, content trips, and other advanced features, they do have a pro version, but the free version really gets you out of the gate running pretty strong. If you have more information about Misterio LMS, visit Misterio, M-A-S-T-E-R-I-Y-O. Com.

[00:02:41.240] – Jonathan Denwood

That’s fantastic, Kurt. Let’s go straight into it, Kurt. I read Dave’s article. He’s struggling with the traditional model and looking to the cohort model to really save his enthusiasm for courses. He’s built some successful ones. What’s your initial reaction to the article? And then maybe we can discuss cohort and live-cohort membership programs and models. What do you reckon, Kurt?

[00:03:22.140] – Kurt von Ahnen

Well, I think this is the never-ending argument or foundational difference of opinion that many folks have in the eLearning space. And it’s from both the corporate and creator sides, Jonathan. Corporations will be like, We want to have eLearning because we want to build the course once and forget about it. We just want to… What people in the creator space say is that passive income, which everybody keeps thinking they have found. But that’s just not reality, Jonathan. It’s not. My whole career in the eLearning space has been based on a good, better, best example. It’s good, yeah, you can get access to my course. You know, better, you’re going to get access to my course with a group of people, a cohort, to go through that within a blended learning example. And then the best would be one-on-one consulting and really working with somebody and coaching them through a topic. So I was pretty enthusiastic about Dave Foy’s article. I thought he hit the nail on the head for a lot of things, but it was like an echo chamber for me because it’s a design I’ve been using for a long time.

[00:04:27.920] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah. So, can you go into those who don’t know what cohort and live cohort membership programs are? Can you give us a broader description for those who don’t know what we’re basically talking about in our intro, really?

[00:04:47.130] – Kurt von Ahnen

Yeah, I blew it and went deep right off the start. E-learning is the idea that we’re going to teach someone online, not necessarily be in the same room with them. And so once we simplify that definition, we realize that, hey, we’re just going to train people online and we don’t have to gather in person. Well, that opens up so many different verticals or channels for exchanging information, Jonathan. There are a lot of folks, and you and I have discussed it before, right? Some people just refer people to a series of links in Google Drive and call that eLearning, or share a curriculum with someone. Now, that’s not the format or the way that I would do it, but that’s what some people actually think eLearning is. And so when we take the example of a course, typically a course creator, what Dave Foy was talking about when he said the course model is dead, is the idea that you’re going to create the course, you’re going to build it one time, and then you’re going to sell it to people, and they’re going to be able to take that course one student at a time at their own pace and just learn.

[00:05:59.000] – Kurt von Ahnen

And the idea that that model is dead is just the idea that course creation, not creation, but course completion percentages continually go down over time. So it used to be if 60 % finished your courses, you were doing great. And then 50, then 30. Now, it’s like, if 20 % of the people that buy your course actually finish it, you’re actually somewhat successful in the space. And that’s one of the things that Dave talked about with the model being broken. And so the cohort example example is the idea that we would sell that same course to a group of people that would do that training at the same time. Now, what’s interesting is some eLearning professionals think that just access to the same course, but on specific dates, like you have to take the course the first Monday of every week or something, right? Some people think that that is the definition of cohort, and that’s enough. If you get enough people doing it together and they have some a discussion group or a discussion forum where they can discuss their progress in the course together. They think that’s enough stickiness to call that a cohort and make that a real thing.

[00:07:11.520] – Kurt von Ahnen

But I think what Dave was really describing in his example in his article isn’t having a completed course that you give people example to, but rather giving people access to a restricted attendance live virtual workshop and then walking people through the content in real-time as an instructor. And that, to me, is the model that when I say blended learning, that’s the model that I use. I give people access to a pre-written curriculum. I give them access to actual course material, but I also have live workshops where we discuss that course material and have open Q&A sessions and really coach people through the content.

[00:07:52.500] – Jonathan Denwood

I think for somebody that’s starting their journey, this is a great idea anyway, because they really need to understand what their students really like about the course and getting this instant feedback. So I think it’s a great idea anyway for those that are starting now.

[00:08:13.760] – Kurt von Ahnen

It goes so much further than that. So let’s say that you are fairly new to this and you say, well, I’m going to run through some of these workshops and you record the workshops as you go, right? Your first one is probably not going to be very good. Your second one is going to be a little better. By the third run through, You know your curriculum. You can preview questions that people might send you on screen. You’re going to be better at what you’re doing. And you’re going to record these sessions. Those recorded sessions could actually become the example for the course going forward. Those recorded sessions could become your evergreen content for your actual online course. And so when we think in terms like that, then that’s when you go back to that good, better, best example I mentioned. Let’s say someone only wants to pay 100 bucks. Well, for 100 bucks, you get access to the course and the prerecorded sessions. And for $500, you get access to the course, but you also get access to live coaching sessions with a cohort of people. Then there’s a whole lot more value and a lot more learning opportunity in those environments.

[00:09:20.640] – Kurt von Ahnen

That’s where that value comes in.

[00:09:23.480] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah. Because I know Lyfter LMS, You can do cohort training. I am correct about that. It’s really set up to do that, isn’t it? Is that correct?

[00:09:40.300] – Kurt von Ahnen

Yeah, they’ve got an add-on called Cohorts, and it automates the process where it will duplicate a course and then set the enrollment dates and the availability dates for that course. But keep in mind, that’s giving people access to the course material, to the actual of lessons. If you want to run live workshops, you’d have to develop or add a channel. Some people just share a Zoom link and meet on a Zoom call. Other people will actually embed a Jitsi meet or a or a Zoom into the lesson.

[00:10:20.240] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, and at WP tonic, because the setting up is, I wouldn’t say it’s a little bit complicated because after you’ve done it a couple of times, it’s not so bad, but trying to do it yourself. But we set it up for people, don’t we? I just think the Zoom and what’s the… You got Jitsy as well, isn’t it? We supply that with a plugin, don’t we? But Are there any negatives to your mind about doing live cohorts?

[00:10:50.840] – Kurt von Ahnen

Yeah, there are. The elephant in the room is this. A lot of people are coming to this space, Jonathan, and they have this dream that they’re going to do a little bit of work because they’re that brilliant, and they’re going to put out something amazing, and then they’re just going to go live on the beach and go camp in the mountains, and, I don’t know, ride pushback or something. They just don’t have a very realistic idea of the work that it’s going to take to maintain it. It’s like what we discuss on the Membership Machine show in different episodes where we say running a membership takes effort. You have to You have to interact with the community. You have to work on building community. It’s the same with running being a course creator and trying to run a cohort like this. If you create a schedule of live sessions, that means that you’re obligated to be there for all of those live sessions. You’re running that. And there’s a little bit of tech burden on that, too. You have to make sure your connection is good, your audio is good, your visual is good, and all that stuff.

[00:11:54.580] – Kurt von Ahnen

So you lose that passive income that everyone is chasing It’s out the window if you’re making yourself a part-time instructor.

[00:12:04.960] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, as your business grows, obviously, you can offer different levels, can’t you? I think initially being able to I think it’s so beneficial to talk to your first group of students anyway. I’ve got to be truthful here. I almost know straight away if somebody is going to be successful when they sign up with WP tonic, when they say to me, Well, have you got a marketing plan? Have you got some strategy about how you’re going to market? No. Have you set up a landing page? Have you worked out an initial early bird offer? No. Have you spoken to any of your possible students and try and find out what their real problems are and the language? Well, I don’t need to do that because I’ve got a ton of experience in that area. If I start getting those type of answers, it’s not always because nothing’s guaranteed. I’m pretty sure they’re not going to be successful, to be truthful about it.

[00:13:15.840] – Kurt von Ahnen

Yeah, Jonathan, the same thing happens at Mañana No Mas. We’ll say, I usually try to not be so direct, but I’ll say, Hey, we’re going to put a CRM in the back of this website. How large the mail list that we’re going to import for that? And they’ll go, Oh, I’ve really got to build that from scratch. And you’re like, Oh. You don’t have a potential market. You’re just right now you’re operating on a wish. That is a painful road to go. If you’re already writing checks or having expenses and you’re not prepared for a lack of income for a while, that’s a hard road to go.

[00:13:57.480] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, it’s like any online business, isn’t it? But I think the beauty of membership is that you can do this part-time, you can do this gradually. There’s not many, and it’s totally achievable still. And there’s not many ways, legitimate ways, that you can actually build a following, build influence, and build a business, and get it to a stage where, if you want to, it can either be a business a sizable addition to your day job, or you can get to a level where you can give up your day job like Dave because he’s involved. This is his business, isn’t it?

[00:14:43.880] – Kurt von Ahnen

It’s interesting to me, Jonathan, because a lot of people will pooh-pooh it and say, Oh, well, the market’s saturated, or it’s impossible to get started now, or the days of, and they’ll say, Oh, well, Apple started in its garage, and those days are over, and Microsoft started in a garage, and those days are over. But then if you really, really look, if you look at the top 10 TikTok influencers, or you look at who’s making strides in the YouTube space, or even if we were to really niche down and say, Hey, let’s look at some of the most recognizable current voices in the WordPress space. These aren’t people that five or eight years ago were at the top of your list. And so if you have perseverance and you have good content and you’re consistent and you work on branding yourself, you are going to be able to climb this ladder. You’re going to be able to grow an audience. And I think it’s also important to remember Remember, Jonathan, that you don’t need 10,000 students coming into your website for most of your products. Most of the products in the eLearning space, if I was selling something for $150, $147.

[00:16:02.880] – Kurt von Ahnen

That’s one of our famous numbers, right? 147 or 247. If I had at 247, if I had a hundred people do that, I have income. People are operating on this assumption of numbers or requirements that’s just not based in reality.

[00:16:22.480] – Jonathan Denwood

Are there any particular way in actually running a cohort live membership program? Are there any, based on the experience, any things that can trip people up that you’d like to point out?

[00:16:40.420] – Kurt von Ahnen

Well, there’s a lot of things that help run a cohort more effectively. One is using your CRM tool. If you’ve got a CRM, like at WP tonic, we use Fluent CRM.

[00:16:51.840] – Jonathan Denwood

Or WP Funnel.

[00:16:53.200] – Kurt von Ahnen

Or WP Funnel, yeah. But you would want to have a CRM tool where you are in emailing your people reminders about the live cohort session and the agenda about that particular session. So for instance, I have a cohort that I do that’s actually a cohort of six different courses back to back to back to back. And so when we meet on any given Tuesday, they get a message that says, Hey, just a reminder, this is session four. We’re going to be going over this course, and these are the main topics we’ll discuss about that course. And you know what happens? People don’t sign in for a week. They stop paying attention. Then they get the email and they go, oh, crud, that’s at 11: 00. I better get on it. And even if they rush it, they at least get their head in the right space. So when they get into the live workshop and you have the conversation, at least they’re They know what the agenda is and they know what the topics are going to be. And then you can help guide them to a better level of success. The cohorts I see that don’t succeed are the ones that make crazy assumptions.

[00:17:57.960] – Kurt von Ahnen

You’re assuming people are You’re obsessive about your content when they’re not. You’re assuming that people are actually reading every detail in your courses, if in a blended learning environment, but they’re not. You want to put in some type of engagement. So You’ll have a lesson or maybe two lessons, and then you want to add an assignment or a knowledge check, something that they’ve got to submit through the LMS. And then you as the cohort facilitator, you use those live workshop sessions to point out somebody’s success or area for growth based on the assignment or the knowledge results. And you do that during the workshop. And so it creates this level of interactivity between the LMS and the workshops space that leads to more completion and more fulfilling completions.

[00:18:50.000] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, that’s fantastic. I think we’re going to go for our break, folks. In the second half of the show, we’re going to have a quick discussion and review of of Google’s Notebook LM, what it is, what it can do. It should be a great second half. We will be back in a few moments, folks. Three, two, one. We’re coming back, folks. We’ve had a feast, a feast of knowledge from Kurt in the first half. Before we go into the second half, I’d like to point out we’ve got some great special deals from the major sponsors of the podcast, plus a created list of the best WordPress plugins and services that will help you build a membership website or a community-focused website on WordPress. They’re all recommended, and most of them, almost all of them, are used by WP Tonic and offered by WP Tonic. You can get all these goodies by going over to Wp-tonic. Com/deals, Wp-tonic. Com/deals. And part of the package is a course done by Kirk himself that will show you how to build your membership website from beginning to end using all the great tools that we offer at WP Tonic.

[00:20:18.660] – Jonathan Denwood

And you get that course at half price. If you go to that deals page, what more could you ask for? So let’s go straight into it, Kirk. So I thought we have a discussion of this. I don’t know because you’ve been very active over the weekend and you’ve been trying to catch up with your own clients and everything else you do. Did you have time to have a quick look at Notebook? If yes, what’s your initial thoughts?

[00:20:47.220] – Kurt von Ahnen

Well, I’ve used it and I actually see a value for it, which is I actually have a… What do they call that? An analogy. I have an analogy that I think actually fits. One of my favorite tablets to use is this remarkable tablet, and it doesn’t connect to the internet, and it doesn’t do apps. It’s distraction-free planning, journaling, like a study tool for me. It’s the tool that keeps me centered, is this tablet. It’s my favorite tablet. Notebook LM is that to me. I don’t want people to get confused. Gemini is the AI for Google, and then we have this Google Notebook LM. Notebook LM is not Gemini. If you want- No.

[00:21:37.460] – Jonathan Denwood

I don’t know if you want me to do it or if you’re happy to do it. I think you got to give an outline what precisely you think it is.

[00:21:51.680] – Kurt von Ahnen

Yeah, so I’m getting there.

[00:21:53.260] – Jonathan Denwood

Oh, sorry.

[00:21:54.980] – Kurt von Ahnen

To me, it’s the disconnected AI. Just the way my tablet is disconnected from the Internet, I feel like Google Notebook is the disconnected AI tool, meaning you put in the resources that you want it to focus on. So it’s not going out to every Tom, Dick, and Harry and pulling stuff all over the place. You add in documents or specific YouTube videos or specific files that you have. You load those into the platform, and then it uses those as your research elements to give you results in what you’re looking for. And that does really cool things. I’ve used it before to analyze my YouTube channel and given it a breadth of YouTube videos that I’ve produced in Añana Nomás. And then I very honestly just said, Hey, it gives you a mind map, which is actually my preferred way to outline things. So I love that the mind maps are in there. So it gives you a mind map. It’ll do an audio summary, but it also does a video summary, which works out really well.

[00:23:02.880] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, I’ve been playing around. I’m just blown away.

[00:23:07.420] – Kurt von Ahnen

Yeah, it’s really cool. Again, I’m going back to the analogy of the Remarkable tablet. The reason I love the remarkable tablet so much is because it’s distraction-free, and it only focuses on what I need to focus on at the moment. And that, to me, is what Notebook LM allows me to do. It allows me to get in, concentrate on the assets I want to play with, and start working for the results that I’m looking to get using just those assets. I think it’s a really good tool in that way. I started looking at use cases that didn’t apply to me because…

[00:23:41.920] – Jonathan Denwood

I see it in a different way, really. Probably not precisely for its purpose, but… See, what it does is, folks, if you put in certain links to certain posts you’ve done on a and you give it a detailed prompt. It will look at all those links. It will look at YouTube videos. It will look at links, YouTube videos, or podcasts. It will look at it all and it will combine it all, and it will make a summary, a very detailed report. You can use it to produce detailed white papers. You can use it to produce downloadable PDF, i. E. Lead magnets. It won’t do the imaging. There are some products that we have reviewed ourselves that will help you do that. I will make sure they’re in the show notes, folks, that help you do the artwork, but it will produce the content for the PDF that can be turned into a lead magnet. What really you can put in a document and it will make an audio file and it will be two different presenters, one male, one female, two female, I presume you can…

[00:25:14.780] – Kurt von Ahnen

You can customize them.

[00:25:15.980] – Jonathan Denwood

Customize them. But what blew me away is they did a better job than me. It’s not mechanically robot-sounding. To me, it’s totally that. It’s quite disturbing in a way. It’s quite natural-sounding, the actual podcast material that it can produce. Also, you can put in documents and video or video. I’ve just been playing around a little bit, not so much as I hoped because it’s been a very busy day today. I’ve actually concentrated and got some work done. You can put a video in and it will make a summary of a like a look. I put in a couple of these shows in to do summary content, video content, and it does a pretty good job. I’m going to have to look at it in detail. But on my end… Sorry, go on.

[00:26:18.470] – Kurt von Ahnen

The videos that it produces are downloadable in MP4, so it’s not like it’s some secret, you can only embed it or whatever. You can download the video and then repurpose the video for whatever you want.

[00:26:29.040] – Jonathan Denwood

I was looking at Not just to upload it to YouTube and private, but use it on the website as additional video content for blog posts and that, because adding new video is time consuming, but I’m seeing all sorts of ways of using it to add more content to my blog posts, so they’re more sticky, so people get more value and they stay on those posts longer. They have a pro-version as well, where you got to give them money. I’ve got to work out what level is the pro-version worthwhile. The only downside is it’s Google, folks, and The way the interface, you do get a web interface. You can’t download it, I think, on your PC, and you definitely can’t download it on your Mac. You can download it to your phone. I’m not sure if it works on your tablet, on your iPad, but it definitely works on your iPhone or Android. You do get this, but it’s typical Google. What I I’m seen by that. I don’t know if you agree with this, Kurt, it’s not particularly… I had to watch a few YouTube videos and muck around before I worked out. But this is pretty cool because I just think they do a terrible…

[00:27:59.120] – Jonathan Denwood

In interface, I I’ve always designed a terrible way of showing it to you. Or am I being a bit cruel? Because I know they’ve updated it a couple of weeks ago and they’ve added these video and audio bits to it. I presume that’s by what the videos I’ve been watching. What do you reckon?

[00:28:20.460] – Kurt von Ahnen

When I first found Notebook LM, and it was from people from the WordPress space on X talking about it a month or two ago, When I first signed in, I didn’t understand what the heck it was doing. I had to go look up videos and go, What is this? Why is everybody happy about this? So, yeah, it’s not super intuitive at first, because when it said upload resources, I’m like, upload what resources? I want you to go get this stuff. What is this? But then once I realized, oh, it’s not Gemini. It wants you to put in what you wanted to use. So then I started thinking of ways to repurpose it. I I launched a book on leadership in 2022. I can upload that PDF file and it will create… So you can say…

[00:29:10.140] – Jonathan Denwood

I would be careful what you’re uploading, folks. If it’s got real IP value, intellectual property, I wouldn’t use this system because it’s all been read by Google. Oh, yeah. We’ve got to be clear. It’s been utilized to build their large learning language models out. If you got anything that has got considerable IP value, don’t load it up to their system. That’s my recommendation, but other people would have a.

[00:29:42.790] – Kurt von Ahnen

My book’s not going to make me rich.

[00:29:44.580] – Jonathan Denwood

No.

[00:29:45.000] – Kurt von Ahnen

So what I was thinking was, remember, we didn’t say this yet, the audio and the video are limited in size. That only takes in so much of the resource to make the audio and the video. So if I wanted to make an audio, like an audio summary about a chapter of the book, I could do that or a video summary about a chapter of the book. But then I could leverage that video as content for a sister course to go along with the book. So people that download the e-book also get access to the course and you could use AI, you could use this notebook to help you through all those stages. And again, I go back to mind mapping. It’s the way my brain is wired to work, and their mind map is really intuitive.

[00:30:30.990] – Jonathan Denwood

It is, and it does PowerPoint slides, doesn’t it? It does slides as well, and they’re pretty good.

[00:30:39.360] – Kurt von Ahnen

That’s all your fault. You got to be hooked on Gamma.

[00:30:41.900] – Jonathan Denwood

Yes, Gamma.

[00:30:43.140] – Kurt von Ahnen

Gamma is phenomenal.

[00:30:45.800] – Jonathan Denwood

And anything else? Because it’s just the quality, the initial ones, so I haven’t delved in enough. But the initial playing around with it, I’ve just been impressed with the quality.

[00:31:01.420] – Kurt von Ahnen

It does reports, it does flashcards.

[00:31:04.320] – Jonathan Denwood

Yes, it does.

[00:31:05.220] – Kurt von Ahnen

It’ll create quizzes for you and quiz you on the content that you’ve uploaded. It’s a pretty cool… I’m not a student, but I do a lot of instructing and teaching. And so I see this like when I tried to research, well, other use cases, what would other people use this for? I could see it being really helpful to students in a higher level of learning that are trying to process a lot of content or responsible to process a lot of content. I think this tool would do a really good job of helping them process the content, organizing thoughts in a constructive way and coming out with a guideline on the root of what they’re studying.

[00:31:47.640] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, but as a marketer, I really see it. It can suck in different… I think you can put ULRs and it will suck in the content. I’ve got to check that. It will combine stuff with stuff you upload, and it will turn it all into a white paper or into a lead magnet because there’s a lot of overlap.

[00:32:14.880] – Kurt von Ahnen

I may have misled people. It does have that discover feature in the sources, so you can search with it. But then what it does is it does a search and then it says, Out of this search, which of these do you want to add to the resources? Yeah, that’s So you don’t have to supply all of the resources.

[00:32:32.440] – Jonathan Denwood

I just think that’s fantastic, isn’t it?

[00:32:35.340] – Kurt von Ahnen

It sounds so weird to say it like this, but I love the limitations side of it. I like the idea that it has the ability to be distraction-free in that Here’s what I want you to focus on for content. Now I want you to use this content.

[00:32:48.320] – Jonathan Denwood

I thought I would never say this, Kirk. I’m quite impressed by a Google product.

[00:32:53.640] – Kurt von Ahnen

I used to like Google Plus back in the day, so it doesn’t say a lot about me and my taste.

[00:32:59.660] – Jonathan Denwood

That’s I’m only worry. It’s something that’s really good. They probably junk it in a year’s time.

[00:33:05.030] – Kurt von Ahnen

Do you remember Bard?

[00:33:08.140] – Jonathan Denwood

Vaguely.

[00:33:08.960] – Kurt von Ahnen

That was the first AI tool that they came out with. Every time you get a sample of something, you think I like this, the part that makes me nervous about Google is without warning, one day it just goes away.

[00:33:21.720] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, they don’t care. They just chop it.

[00:33:24.460] – Kurt von Ahnen

They had Google Buzz, they had Google Circle, they had Google Plus, they had Google, and all That stuff is gone. Google Bard is gone. I don’t know. It’s nothing I would get overly attached to, but it’s a good tool for the moment.

[00:33:39.960] – Jonathan Denwood

I think next week we’ll find a main topic for the first half, and then in the second half, we might look. Is it Gemini Studio or Google AI Studio? I was looking at that and I was quite impressed with that as well.

[00:33:54.020] – Kurt von Ahnen

Is that the one that makes the film-quality videos?

[00:33:57.860] – Jonathan Denwood

It does, and other graphics and that.

[00:34:01.320] – Kurt von Ahnen

That’s what I feel about that.

[00:34:03.940] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, I’ve got mixed feelings about it, but it doesn’t really matter what we think, does it?

[00:34:09.560] – Kurt von Ahnen

No, because people dig it. It’s interesting because if we go back just a few episodes on the Membership Machine Show, I was very, very attentive and very standoffish about a lot of AI tools. I said, Hey, I use AI every day, but it’s a struggle when we, as agency people, have clients that want to use AI and then tell us, Oh, I figured this out. Let’s just do this real quick. That’s not a great use of AI. But AI to process content, AI to help make a video, AI to help draft a script for your next YouTube video. Those are all great uses of AI, and the content is getting better and better and better.

[00:34:52.060] – Jonathan Denwood

I use a lot of AI. I really like this Google notebook, and I like some of the other tools too. As you know, Kirk, I use quite a bit of AI, but I just don’t like all the flannel. I consider it propaganda flannel. About general intelligence from certain individuals, but they might be right. They’re getting all this money, and they might prove that in two years we’ll be gone. We’re just being replaced by the general intelligence robots. There’s no need for Kirk or Jonathan. We have to give our AI overlords, we just have to see what they’re up to, won’t we? But in general, these types of products, I’m totally fine with them. It’s just the replacement of humanity propaganda that gets me a bit twitchy, Kurt.

[00:35:52.460] – Kurt von Ahnen

Yeah, I go back to where I was saying before, there’s such a distraction with such a wide breadth of tools available that the average person running a shoe store, the average person running a distribution business, the average person running some production facility, they don’t have the mind space to become experts in all of this stuff. And they don’t want to, just like they didn’t want to become webmasters with simple websites a decade ago. There’s always going to be room for experts to come in and serve people with the products and services that they require.

[00:36:29.200] – Jonathan Denwood

I give another tool I’ve been using, just to finish off, that I’ve been really impressed with, is Super Whisper. Do you know about this one?

[00:36:42.340] – Kurt von Ahnen

I don’t use Whisper.

[00:36:44.080] – Jonathan Denwood

Don’t use Whisper?

[00:36:45.440] – Kurt von Ahnen

I don’t use Whisper.

[00:36:47.120] – Jonathan Denwood

No, Super Whisper.

[00:36:49.840] – Kurt von Ahnen

Well, I don’t use regular Whisper or Super Whisper.

[00:36:52.220] – Jonathan Denwood

Super Whisper. And what it does, folks, they offer a free program, but they also have a paid one. But if you pay yearly, they also They’ve got a lifetime deal. Kirek’s getting interested. A lifetime deal. Those magic words. He loves his lifetime deal. They got a lifetime deal. I’m not sure if it’s only Mac. I don’t know. I imagine it’s PC as well. You can download it, talk to it, and it will write things out for you. It’s pretty. It’s one of the most accurate voice-to-citation systems I’ve come across. I get stuck on a particular spelling of a word, and I just want to talk to something. I normally just use Google Chrome because it normally gets it spot on, which certain ladies who are available on the Mac never get any spelling right. But Google does. But this whisper, Super Whisper, does even a better job. It’s very accurate. I’ve been using that for the past couple of weeks, and it’s made a big difference. Because there’s nothing worse than getting stuck on spending a word, and you’re spending so often that even spell check can’t get it.

[00:38:14.500] – Jonathan Denwood

It takes so much time, and this has really sped me up, as they say. I need speeding up, don’t I, Kurt?

[00:38:23.160] – Kurt von Ahnen

Sometimes it’s nice to slow down and smell the roses. I have the Groch app on my mobile phone, and I don’t do this in front of other people, but if I’m in the car by myself, I talk to it, have a little conversation with it, and it just gave me a great recipe for some curry soup last week. It was phenomenal.

[00:38:46.240] – Jonathan Denwood

There we go. There is a purpose to AI, folks. It can give you great curry recipes. There we go. So, Kurt, what’s the best way for people to find out more about you and what you’re up to?

[00:39:00.560] – Kurt von Ahnen

Well, for business, we’re at Mañana No Mas on X, on Facebook: mañanaNoMas. Com. Then personally, if you want to make a connection, you can find me on LinkedIn. I’m the only Kurt von Anden on LinkedIn, so you don’t have to guess which one is me.

[00:39:16.390] – Jonathan Denwood

That’s fantastic. If you want to support the Membership Machine show, give us a review. If you’re listening on your iPhone or Android, and on iTunes or Spotify, they make it really easy for you to leave a review, which makes a big difference for me and Kurt. It means more new people will hear the show and become part of the tribe. Also, if you have any questions or need support, we do have a small Facebook group. If you have any questions, you can go to Facebook and look up the Membership Machine Show and leave your questions there. We will be back next week with another great. See you soon, folks. Bye.

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