Latest / Abbey the Podcast Lady / Live Podcasting 101: Creating Real-Time Community with Your Show

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Live Podcasting 101: Creating Real-Time Community with Your Show · Abbey the Podcast Lady

• 0:04
  Hello and welcome back to another episode of
• 0:07
  Abby the Podcast Lady. I have been loving having
• 0:10
  special guests on the show thanks to the Podmatch
• 0:13
  service. It has been hooking me up with some
• 0:15
  really great people. Some really cool conversations
• 0:18
  have been happening and today I know it's going
• 0:20
  to be no exception to that rule. We have Jeff
• 0:22
  joining us to talk about live podcasting. Hello,
• 0:26
  Jeff. Hello, hello. I do love the PodMatch universe.
• 0:30
  There's almost like this secret society of podcasters
• 0:33
  that are secretly networking to help build each
• 0:36
  other's shows up. And I'm so excited to connect
• 0:38
  with you and looking forward to our chat. I will
• 0:40
  sing its praises until I'm blue in the face.
• 0:42
  I literally just had a meeting with someone today
• 0:44
  who just got started in podcasting and they were
• 0:47
  like, well, we want to start bringing guests
• 0:48
  on, but we don't really know anyone. I'm like,
• 0:50
  oh boy, do I have the solution for you? And they
• 0:53
  were just blown away by it. And they're like,
• 0:55
  it's like a dating app for podcasters. I'm like.
• 0:58
  Kind of, yeah. That's exactly what it does. And
• 1:00
  it does it really well. And if you are active
• 1:02
  in the system, it keeps sending you more people.
• 1:05
  The more active you are, the more people you
• 1:06
  get to meet. Yeah, it's absolutely beautiful.
• 1:09
  And some really great connections have come from
• 1:10
  it. So Jeff, you are really immersed in the live
• 1:14
  podcasting space. And I think that's kind of
• 1:16
  what caught my eye when you sent me a message
• 1:18
  on Podmatch, because this is an approach I don't
• 1:22
  see a whole lot of in my sector of the podcasting
• 1:26
  world. It's just not. something that comes up
• 1:28
  a whole lot. But I'm fascinated by it because
• 1:30
  I come from the world of radio broadcasting,
• 1:32
  which I did a live show every single day for
• 1:34
  like a decade. So I'm very familiar with the
• 1:37
  concept of it and how it works. But with podcasting,
• 1:40
  it's kind of a different venture. I would love
• 1:42
  to hear. your journey and how you got involved
• 1:44
  with this. Take me back to the very beginning.
• 1:46
  What did starting out podcasting look like for
• 1:48
  you? Well, my first swing at it was like in 2011,
• 1:51
  and it was a disaster. I had no idea even what
• 1:53
  an RSS feed was or how to produce a show, how
• 1:56
  to release a show. There was a blogging platform
• 1:58
  called Typeform or Typepad way back. It was just
• 2:02
  a blog platform, like it was similar to WordPress.
• 2:05
  And they advertised, you could host your podcast
• 2:07
  here. So I recorded a podcast, I uploaded it.
• 2:11
  And I'm like, now, what. What they didn't tell
• 2:13
  you was they were just putting an MP3 file on
• 2:15
  a blog. It wasn't really even a podcast. And
• 2:18
  I kept thinking about that. And I'm a very social
• 2:21
  guy, like to hang out, like to have fun. I'm
• 2:23
  a big goofy guy making jokes. I come from a history
• 2:26
  of skateboarding and punk rock. So it's very
• 2:29
  communal for me. Everything is your credibility
• 2:31
  and your net worth is what people think of you
• 2:34
  and how much fun you're having. And I brought
• 2:36
  that to podcasting in about 2015. I wanted to
• 2:39
  start a trivia show. And I found this platform
• 2:42
  called Blab, and the internet's kind of divided
• 2:45
  into two camps. Either you were there for Blab
• 2:47
  or you weren't. And if you know about Blab, you
• 2:50
  have this lifelong community, just like Podmatch.
• 2:53
  We were there, we were immersed in the moment,
• 2:55
  and Blab was one of the first four -in -the -box
• 2:57
  live streaming services. And back in 2015, you
• 3:00
  can go live, and it had this social element where
• 3:03
  it would deliver 30 people to your room. Within
• 3:06
  three minutes, your room would fill up with people
• 3:08
  watching your live stream, and it was chaos.
• 3:11
  You could type commands and make the screen shake.
• 3:13
  You can make it snow. Like you could give props
• 3:15
  and like coins would start falling around. It
• 3:17
  was very ahead of its time. And what made it
• 3:20
  so unique is it was recording it. And at the
• 3:22
  same time. You could download the recording.
• 3:25
  So I figured out like, oh, I'm having this fun
• 3:27
  party -like environment. We're playing trivia.
• 3:30
  It's like a game show. And then I can extract
• 3:33
  all that video audio and I can turn that into
• 3:36
  an MP3 file and release that as a podcast. So
• 3:39
  that was kind of like where all this like social
• 3:41
  stuff started to work into podcasting. And I
• 3:43
  kept trying to push that boundary. Like what
• 3:45
  could a podcast be? Does it just have to be me
• 3:48
  in my mom's basement or my home studio recording?
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  Or could it be something more? Could I interact
• 3:54
  with people? And over the years, Zoom and StreamYard
• 3:57
  and Hopin' up here and all these places started
• 4:00
  to really build up the live element. It kept
• 4:02
  building that social element, but it still, people
• 4:04
  were so isolated. I just wanted to bring people
• 4:07
  together. I wanted to think of like the comedy
• 4:09
  club model or when you go to see a band at a
• 4:12
  venue, you're there with people, you're experiencing
• 4:15
  things in the moment. And I think we're at a
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  point now where podcasting can be that. and so
• 4:20
  much more. We can really take this to the next
• 4:22
  level. That's amazing. The way you're describing
• 4:25
  Blab is kind of how I'm like picturing TikTok
• 4:28
  live at the moment where people are sending roses
• 4:30
  and galaxies and all that stuff. It was kind
• 4:33
  of like the early version. of that if i had to
• 4:36
  like compare it to something that's happening
• 4:37
  nowadays unfortunately blab had zero business
• 4:40
  model and it grew so rapidly in the two -year
• 4:44
  period it just collapsed under its own weight
• 4:47
  like it had no way to sustain itself and you'll
• 4:49
  still meet people 10 years later that were there
• 4:51
  for blab and it just has this place in your heart
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  because nothing has ever replaced it and i think
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  i'm maybe i'm Ten years later, I'm trying to
• 4:59
  build that in real life. I'm trying to build
• 5:00
  a place where you could just connect with people
• 5:03
  and not be worried about the algorithm delivering
• 5:06
  the right content to the right people. You're
• 5:09
  just immersed in this local community and just
• 5:11
  having a great time with people in front of you
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  laughing and clapping and shaking your hand and
• 5:16
  thanking you for doing a live, getting them out
• 5:18
  of their house, getting them off their phone.
• 5:20
  People are very excited to go into a theater
• 5:22
  environment and just consume a podcast with other
• 5:26
  people and be there. in that moment because podcast
• 5:28
  consumption can feel pretty like isolating. I
• 5:31
  know I find like every single, we're going to
• 5:34
  wrap this show. I'm going to ask you what shows
• 5:36
  you've been listening to lately and everyone's
• 5:38
  listening to something different. And when you
• 5:40
  do have crossover with someone, you're like,
• 5:41
  oh my goodness, we listened to the same thing.
• 5:44
  I have someone to talk to about this thing that
• 5:46
  I feel very passionate about. And we, cause there's
• 5:49
  just so much to consume these days. There aren't
• 5:52
  those like things that everyone's watching. There's
• 5:53
  no water cooler show anymore. So the fact that
• 5:56
  you're creating an environment for that, I think
• 5:58
  is just so special. Yeah, and it's, you know,
• 6:01
  there's a couple problems, right? It's not just
• 6:03
  all fun and games and you just open a theater.
• 6:06
  You're working in a new field, a new type of
• 6:09
  entertainment. I had joked earlier about being
• 6:11
  a podcaster in your basement or in your home
• 6:13
  studio. We're in a very safe environment, you
• 6:16
  and I. I can come home, I can turn my computer
• 6:18
  on, I fire up my microphone, I turn on my lights,
• 6:20
  and I know I'm going to get a product that I'm...
• 6:23
  comfortable with and you're the same way in your
• 6:25
  home studio, home office, you're safe. And so
• 6:27
  a lot of podcasters really relish in that safety.
• 6:31
  They want to be in an environment they can control.
• 6:35
  Getting them out of that environment that, hey,
• 6:37
  you got to come to the theater. Let me produce
• 6:39
  your show. Let me control your audio. Let me
• 6:42
  control the live stream. That's dangerous for
• 6:45
  a lot of podcasters. So I'm working to change
• 6:47
  that model and try to. get people to break free
• 6:50
  from, I gotta be in my home studio. I gotta be
• 6:53
  in my home office. And on the other side of this,
• 6:55
  the public hasn't really done. podcasting or
• 6:59
  thinks of podcasting as a thing you can do it's
• 7:02
  maybe a thing you listen to maybe a big actor
• 7:04
  or comedian is coming to your local arena or
• 7:07
  theater you might go see them but you don't think
• 7:10
  is going to see them and their podcast so we're
• 7:12
  trying to also train the public like hey this
• 7:15
  is a new form of entertainment just like going
• 7:17
  to see a comedian at a comedy club just like
• 7:19
  going to see a musician at a bar or a local venue
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  You can do this, and it's a whole new form of
• 7:26
  entertainment. It's a whole new way to ingest
• 7:28
  something that you're interested in. If you have
• 7:30
  different hobbies or different interests, whether
• 7:33
  they're sports -related, political -related,
• 7:36
  you macrame cowboy pants for some reason, there's
• 7:39
  a group of people who do that too. And this is
• 7:42
  a way to connect with them in real life. But
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  we've got to figure out how do we inform the
• 7:47
  public that you can do this as a form of entertainment?
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  And how do we get the podcasters to break free
• 7:52
  and get out of their houses? Yeah, for sure.
• 7:54
  So when did you initially have the idea to build
• 7:58
  what's behind you? If you're watching the video
• 8:00
  version, I strongly recommend it because this
• 8:02
  is a gorgeous setup that you have here. What
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  was that light bulb moment like? 2017, I started
• 8:08
  thinking about this idea. And a friend of mine
• 8:11
  was opening a coffee shop and he had a parking
• 8:13
  lot that was next door that wasn't being used.
• 8:15
  And he said, why don't we do a show here? You
• 8:17
  know, you're doing these live streams anyway.
• 8:19
  Let's do one in real life. I'll buy tacos. You
• 8:22
  know, we'll have drinks and everything. And I
• 8:24
  said, all right. And it kind of kicked the idea
• 8:27
  around for a while. And then he ended up moving
• 8:29
  spaces. And he's like, I got the perfect place.
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  And it was 2020. It was March 30th, 2020. Nothing
• 8:37
  was happening then. Finally, to do our first
• 8:40
  live show. Unfortunately, the world shut down
• 8:42
  on March 21st. And even like five days before,
• 8:46
  we're like, I think we could still do it. That's
• 8:48
  almost 14 days of quarantine. We could probably
• 8:50
  still have it. And we ended up canceling the
• 8:52
  show. And I started thinking about this idea
• 8:54
  more and more because of the original version
• 8:55
  of that. was, I called it theater in my car,
• 8:59
  where I had a podium, I had a mixer, I had some
• 9:01
  speakers, and I had like three mic stands where
• 9:04
  I could set it up. And you can see there's a
• 9:06
  video, maybe you put in the show notes from a
• 9:08
  long time ago, where you can see that, all that
• 9:11
  you see fit in the back of my car. So it was
• 9:13
  theater anywhere. And this idea, after Blab closed
• 9:17
  and after we had trouble doing the pandemic,
• 9:19
  I thought, well, I could really just set something
• 9:21
  up anywhere. Maybe it's at a park or along a
• 9:24
  river trail or one of those clamshells you see
• 9:27
  at your local park or a mall or sidewalk and
• 9:30
  just do a podcast anywhere. And I thought, how
• 9:32
  fun would that be just to jump into the community
• 9:35
  and do a show? And that idea didn't have many
• 9:38
  legs, but I had all the structure and had everything
• 9:40
  built out. And then I started thinking about,
• 9:42
  okay, well, I love doing live shows. I love doing
• 9:45
  shows with people. I was like, what if I just,
• 9:47
  you know, started going to like people's. parties
• 9:50
  like a raging kegger in a basement or a bar mitzvah
• 9:53
  or a birthday party or a wedding ceremony i could
• 9:57
  do shows anywhere and kind of like a dj kind
• 9:59
  of mentality i was like that's good but the trivia
• 10:02
  shows and you know at that time bigger global
• 10:04
  audience and as some people are going to miss
• 10:06
  out on seeing those live shows so i started really
• 10:09
  thinking about what if i wasn't confined by a
• 10:13
  space what is a theater where is a theater how
• 10:17
  can you build a theater you could really have
• 10:19
  with the technology that we have today that almost
• 10:22
  everybody has access to you could have the ability
• 10:24
  to record a show from anywhere and at the time
• 10:27
  I don't know if you know what a Mevo camera is
• 10:29
  oh I could set up a Mevo I have so many Mevos
• 10:32
  yeah the old cylinder one oh yeah I took a Mevo
• 10:35
  out I could theoretically have nine different
• 10:38
  camera shots from one camera. I can broadcast
• 10:41
  that. It has Ethernet, so if I can connect to
• 10:43
  the Internet, now I can have television -quality
• 10:46
  production. Even if I'm in somebody's basement
• 10:49
  during their party, I can then broadcast, and
• 10:52
  I'm not confined by the space of that room. If
• 10:56
  you look at the theater behind me, I'm licensed
• 10:58
  to have 40 people in that room, but the capacity
• 11:02
  for a show that I produce? is the same as madison
• 11:05
  square garden i could theoretically have this
• 11:08
  little baby box of a theater but because i have
• 11:11
  cameras all around and i'm mic'd everywhere i
• 11:14
  can broadcast that to the world and the same
• 11:16
  amount of people that can fit in madison square
• 11:18
  garden can see the show and that was kind of
• 11:20
  like the light bulb moment is what if i'm not
• 11:23
  confined by the walls of a physical structure
• 11:25
  i don't need to spend thousands and thousands
• 11:28
  of dollars to rent a hotel ballroom or to rent
• 11:30
  out a theater I could do it for like 800 bucks
• 11:33
  a month with a small little theater space. And,
• 11:37
  you know, I'm in a depressed area in Western
• 11:39
  Pennsylvania, typical Rust Belt town that's collapsed,
• 11:42
  but there's plenty of retail space available.
• 11:45
  It's not going to break the bank. I can test
• 11:47
  this theory out and I can build something special
• 11:50
  that. I don't know if it's ever existed before.
• 11:52
  I know there's been iterations of what a podcast
• 11:55
  theater is, but the combination of the podcast
• 11:58
  theater with the TV station is it's pretty unique
• 12:00
  and it's pretty powerful with what you can accomplish
• 12:04
  on a shoestring budget. It is so. insane i love
• 12:09
  stories like this because i also come from a
• 12:11
  small town that not a whole lot's going on in
• 12:14
  there and i moved to the big city it's an hour
• 12:17
  away it's the only thing special that makes it
• 12:20
  big is it has two targets like whoop -de -doo
• 12:22
  but i have a podcast studio in the downtown area
• 12:25
  too and it's like yeah you can do these cool
• 12:28
  things in areas that you wouldn't necessarily
• 12:31
  expect them to be happening. Like you just got
• 12:34
  to have a vision and a dream. And like you said,
• 12:36
  you can do it on a shoestring budget. That's
• 12:38
  not an issue. Absolutely. And I tell people.
• 12:40
  This is ahead of its time a little bit in the
• 12:42
  fact that is the public ready for it or the podcast
• 12:45
  is ready for it. It has traction. It has interest.
• 12:48
  And it is growing rapidly. And if you listen
• 12:50
  to my news podcast, every week I'm talking about
• 12:52
  six stories about people doing podcasts live.
• 12:55
  So you'll start to see as we get towards the
• 12:56
  end of this interview, this is happening way
• 12:59
  more than just in my town. And what I tell people
• 13:02
  is you probably don't have this in your town.
• 13:03
  I know that for a fact because. I haven't found
• 13:06
  any other ones in the area or in the United States.
• 13:09
  But every town has a coffee shop. Every town
• 13:12
  has a record store. Every town has a library.
• 13:15
  And a lot of libraries have media centers or
• 13:17
  auditoriums. And they're looking to bring people
• 13:20
  in. They want people to use these spaces. If
• 13:23
  you go to a coffee shop, I know Saturday afternoons,
• 13:26
  it's a slower time for you. Do you think from
• 13:28
  like 2 to... three, I could come in and just
• 13:31
  record an episode of my podcast. And if someone
• 13:33
  wants to watch, they can watch. A lot of bars
• 13:35
  have stages off to the side. Same type of thing.
• 13:38
  You have spaces in your town, in your area, be
• 13:41
  creative. Like you can do this anywhere. You
• 13:44
  don't need to have a theater space. You can do
• 13:46
  this wherever you're at. And you should actively
• 13:50
  try to do one show by the end of next year. If
• 13:53
  you do anything with your podcast, try it. I
• 13:56
  promise you it'll change the way you think about
• 13:57
  podcasting. I love that. That is a beautiful
• 14:00
  challenge. Like this is the time of year everyone's
• 14:03
  setting those goals, making those plans for 2026.
• 14:06
  I think that's a great thing to push you outside
• 14:08
  of your comfort zone. Because like you said,
• 14:10
  we get comfortable in our own spaces. I know
• 14:12
  I'm comfortable in my little editing cave here
• 14:15
  in the basement. I'm comfortable in my studio
• 14:17
  in downtown. But I know if I took myself out
• 14:20
  of either of those environments, or if I took
• 14:22
  any of my clients out of their environments that
• 14:25
  they record in, it'd be like a fish out of water.
• 14:27
  But sometimes you need that little kick in the
• 14:30
  pants to really like, oh, what are people resonating
• 14:33
  with in person? Because then you're getting that
• 14:34
  live feedback too from like, oh, that's making
• 14:37
  people think more than I thought they would.
• 14:38
  Or I thought they'd really enjoy this and they
• 14:41
  kind of seem like they're checked out. So I think
• 14:43
  that's a great challenge to just really push
• 14:45
  yourself outside of your little comfort zone
• 14:47
  for 2026. I don't know how your audience, how
• 14:51
  receptive they are to math, but I have a little
• 14:53
  bit of numbers that. really helps cement this
• 14:56
  as why this is probably a better business model
• 15:00
  for 90 % of podcasters. I don't know if you want
• 15:03
  me to share it. I'll go into a couple of numbers
• 15:05
  right now. Drop those numbers. If they need to
• 15:07
  pause and add up on their fingers, let them.
• 15:09
  If you look at it, I'm going to give you stats
• 15:11
  from Buzzsprout from Libsyn and they release
• 15:14
  their server logs and they tell you what podcasters
• 15:17
  get. And if you get more than a thousand downloads
• 15:20
  on your episode, you're in the top 10%. So 90
• 15:25
  % of podcasters aren't getting a thousand downloads
• 15:28
  per episode. And that's important to know because
• 15:30
  a lot of people come into podcasting. They want
• 15:33
  to be the next Joe Rogan, the next Bill Burr,
• 15:35
  the next Whitney Cummings. But the reality is
• 15:37
  90 % of people aren't going to get to that thousand.
• 15:41
  And that's okay. You don't necessarily need to
• 15:43
  have a thousand downloads to have a podcasting
• 15:45
  business. The reason a lot of podcasters get
• 15:48
  in the business is they want to do host -read
• 15:50
  ads. They're like, oh, I'm going to make a podcast.
• 15:53
  I'm going to read sponsors for Sherry's Berries
• 15:57
  and Purple Mattress, and I'm going to make millions
• 15:59
  of dollars. The important thing is when you do
• 16:02
  ads for podcasts, you typically can get about
• 16:05
  $20, $25 per thousand downloads. So, you know,
• 16:09
  where does that math break down? Well, if 90
• 16:11
  % of you aren't getting to a thousand downloads,
• 16:13
  it's going to be hard to make that $20 per ad
• 16:16
  read. And that's okay. What I try to tell you,
• 16:19
  if you take me up on my challenge and you do
• 16:22
  one live show by the end of the year, and let's
• 16:24
  say you sell four tickets, you sell four tickets
• 16:27
  with my business model. I give you the theater
• 16:30
  space. I produce the tickets and the landing
• 16:31
  page. You don't have to worry about any of that
• 16:33
  stuff. But at the end of the night, we sit down
• 16:35
  and we split the door 50 -50. So if you sold
• 16:38
  four tickets at $10, $40 total in sales, you
• 16:42
  would walk away with $20. Now ask yourself, as
• 16:45
  a podcaster, is it a lot easier to get four people
• 16:50
  to come to your show or to get to 1 ,000 downloads?
• 16:53
  And what I've been preaching is there's another
• 16:56
  business model that a lot of podcasters aren't
• 16:58
  thinking about. And it's a model that maybe...
• 17:02
  It isn't going to change your life right off
• 17:04
  the bat, but it's going to build something a
• 17:06
  lot more special, a lot more tangible. You're
• 17:09
  going to meet people in your community a lot
• 17:11
  faster. And I guarantee you, your first show,
• 17:15
  you're going to make more money than you'd probably
• 17:17
  make in a year. Trying to wait for host read
• 17:20
  ads. So start thinking about your podcast just
• 17:23
  a little bit differently. There are things that
• 17:25
  you can do on top of just sell tickets. You could
• 17:28
  have merchandise. Maybe you have t -shirts. Maybe
• 17:31
  you sell a sponsorship on the back of the ticket.
• 17:33
  Then whenever you have that package, maybe part
• 17:37
  of that package includes an ad read. Now you
• 17:39
  can do the ad reads on your show. So you can
• 17:41
  kind of double dip with your sponsors. And you
• 17:44
  think about this as. This is media that you're
• 17:47
  creating, that you're owning. And you're doing
• 17:50
  it live. You get four people to show up. Four
• 17:52
  people watching you is worth a thousand people
• 17:55
  downloading. And we know who's getting a thousand
• 17:58
  downloads. 90 % of us aren't. So let's rethink
• 18:02
  that. And I call it the money ball math of podcasting.
• 18:06
  What if you get eight people to your show? What
• 18:08
  if you get 12 or 20 people? Like that starts
• 18:12
  to change things. every episode I love that my
• 18:16
  brain just like it's like you just lit a match
• 18:18
  on it and I have so many ideas now like yeah
• 18:21
  just like light a match dump a gallon of gasoline
• 18:24
  on it and let me run but yeah I think that's
• 18:28
  a great way to look at it because like you said
• 18:29
  people aren't hitting that thousand download
• 18:32
  thing especially if they're just getting started
• 18:34
  if they're a year two years in and they're still
• 18:36
  trying to find their place in the world and really
• 18:39
  establish their show so yeah I mean I'm willing
• 18:43
  to bet you got four friends that will come and
• 18:46
  support you and pay that money at the door. And
• 18:49
  then they might have a friend that they could
• 18:50
  bring. They might have family that they could
• 18:52
  bring. You're going out to all these networking
• 18:54
  groups. I know I am constantly. It's one right
• 18:57
  after the next. And those people are showing
• 18:59
  up, too. So, yeah, your community is bigger than
• 19:01
  you think it is. And I'm willing to bet they
• 19:03
  want to see you succeed. I tell people two things,
• 19:05
  especially in the Pittsburgh area. This should
• 19:08
  be a special event at this point in your podcast
• 19:10
  career. Maybe it's something you want to do quarterly
• 19:13
  just to reward your fans, hang out with your
• 19:15
  friends and family, bring people to the theater,
• 19:18
  help you record a show and just have a night
• 19:20
  up. People bring their own catering. They bring
• 19:23
  their own drinks. Like it's becomes this festive
• 19:26
  celebration. And there's one other bonus that
• 19:29
  you get from doing live shows that you never
• 19:31
  thought of. We didn't even think of when we launched
• 19:34
  this place is. You probably have friends and
• 19:37
  family that you've told, hey, I have a podcast.
• 19:39
  And they're like, oh, that's nice, sweetie. We're
• 19:42
  so proud of you. That's cute. And they don't
• 19:45
  listen. Your family does not listen to your podcast.
• 19:47
  Your friends probably don't listen to your podcast.
• 19:50
  You may have gone like on Thanksgiving and pulled
• 19:53
  up their phone secretly and automatically subscribed
• 19:55
  them. I know people have done that. I've done
• 19:58
  it. I'll teach them. Whenever you go back home
• 20:01
  and you say, hey, you know, end of January, beginning
• 20:05
  of February, coming up here, we're putting a
• 20:07
  live show together. I'm going to be on the main
• 20:09
  stage at the Padooty Live Podcast Theater in
• 20:11
  downtown Tarentum. We're doing a special live
• 20:14
  event. I'm headlining the night. It's my night
• 20:17
  on the show. Your family and friends' perspective.
• 20:21
  instantly changes what your little hobby was.
• 20:25
  Like they used to think, oh, that's cute. Little
• 20:26
  Jeffy does his podcast and he's having a good
• 20:29
  time. But now that I told them I'm going to be
• 20:31
  live on the main stage at the podcast theater,
• 20:34
  they understand that. That's very tangible. You
• 20:37
  watch your friends and family and close fans.
• 20:40
  They light up. When you start telling them like,
• 20:43
  hey, this is now a thing. They're going to be
• 20:45
  live. You know, my son or daughter or my girlfriend,
• 20:48
  my husband, they're going to be live on the stage.
• 20:50
  You guys should come out. It's a lot of fun.
• 20:52
  We're going to buy pizza. You know, you can bring
• 20:54
  BYOB if you want. It becomes something so much
• 20:58
  more. When your podcast has a live date set,
• 21:02
  all these other little benefits, like you can
• 21:04
  break even, you can probably cover your expenses.
• 21:06
  Like let's say you sell 10 tickets, you make
• 21:08
  50 bucks. That's probably most people's podcast
• 21:11
  hosting for three to five months, depending on
• 21:14
  where you're hosting it. So just doing this with
• 21:18
  your friends and family covers your cost of your
• 21:20
  hobby, right? You're going to have this unique
• 21:22
  experience that can only be created. If you're
• 21:25
  there, you think about there's so many more things
• 21:27
  that can happen with podcasting than just sitting
• 21:29
  down and recording an MP3 file. And that's what
• 21:32
  we're really trying to build. This place is about
• 21:34
  community. It's about support. It's about being
• 21:37
  there for each other. It's such a new frontier.
• 21:41
  We just want to see it grow. And you'll see people
• 21:44
  come in who did other shows or who met at one
• 21:46
  of my meetups, and they just come to support
• 21:49
  the people that they met at meetups. And you
• 21:51
  just see it compounding month after month. It's
• 21:54
  growing and growing. There's this great community
• 21:56
  who just love doing this and who see the potential
• 22:00
  of it, who love the benefits of doing it, and
• 22:03
  they just want to be a part of something. And
• 22:06
  I think this is a very unique experience for
• 22:09
  people. for people to be a part of. And I keep
• 22:10
  seeing trends for 2026. I'm chronically online.
• 22:14
  I spend too much time on TikTok. But I've been
• 22:17
  seeing everyone starting to make their predictions
• 22:19
  for 2026. What are people craving? What are we
• 22:22
  all going to be leaning more towards? And what
• 22:24
  I keep seeing over and over again is... in -person
• 22:27
  community building. We have been so siloed to
• 22:31
  the screens in front of our faces in the sweatpants
• 22:34
  and comfort of our own home as we say that we're
• 22:37
  sitting here in sweatpants. To be fair, you're
• 22:39
  half a country away from me. But people are craving
• 22:43
  that in -person connection and fun and unique
• 22:46
  experiences and things that get them out and
• 22:48
  involved in the community again. So things exactly
• 22:52
  like what you're doing, it's hitting the nail
• 22:54
  on the head. People are waking up. They're realizing
• 22:57
  how destructive their cell phone is to their
• 22:59
  personal mental ability, their physical ability.
• 23:04
  People come home and they're so drained after
• 23:06
  work, they just sit on the couch and scroll.
• 23:08
  That's the only kind of relief they get, that
• 23:11
  dopamine hit of, oh, am I going to get a good
• 23:13
  video next one? Is the next one going to be a
• 23:15
  good video? And they're waking up from that.
• 23:17
  And ironically, I think AI is the culprit. People
• 23:23
  don't like AI. They don't like seeing the content
• 23:26
  from AI. They don't like AI videos. And if AI
• 23:30
  is producing the majority of the stuff that's
• 23:32
  getting pushed into feeds, people are kind of
• 23:36
  like backing up. They're rejecting it. They're
• 23:38
  really seeing like, what am I doing with my life?
• 23:41
  I'm just sitting here going through these mindless
• 23:44
  videos. I'm not living a life anymore. I'm kind
• 23:47
  of like attached to this thing. And this thing
• 23:49
  controls what I do 90 % of the time. Like I have
• 23:51
  to be on it. And we're seeing a pullback from
• 23:55
  that. We're seeing people want, like you said,
• 23:58
  real in -life experiences. They want to go back
• 24:00
  out into the community and hang out with friends
• 24:03
  and family. And they want something more. And
• 24:06
  they're not getting it from streaming media all
• 24:09
  night, sitting on their phone all night. It's
• 24:11
  just not a life that people want to live anymore.
• 24:14
  Yeah, I know personally, these past couple days,
• 24:17
  we had a blizzard hit in Minnesota. And I have
• 24:21
  been literally sitting in the chair I'm sitting
• 24:24
  in right now for like 48 hours. And I had an
• 24:27
  in -person meeting this morning and I'm like,
• 24:29
  I get to go out into the world. I get to go talk
• 24:32
  to a human. Oh my gosh. And it felt so good.
• 24:36
  And that's just after two days. Yeah. I still
• 24:39
  work a full -time job. So I get to drive around.
• 24:42
  I get to listen to podcasts on my, you know,
• 24:44
  my commute to and from work. And it is nice to
• 24:47
  get out. And it's also. easy to come back home
• 24:51
  at night and just sit in my chair, put on Stranger
• 24:54
  Things. I just don't think we're being true to
• 24:57
  ourselves. We want to be around people. We want
• 25:00
  to help people. That's in our nature. Deep down,
• 25:04
  you would help your neighbor shovel out their
• 25:06
  sidewalk in a snowstorm, right? If they got trapped
• 25:09
  and needed groceries, you'd give them a loaf
• 25:11
  of bread or some milk that you had in your house.
• 25:13
  You want to take care of people. You want to
• 25:16
  be around people. That's who we are. We survived
• 25:19
  this long through this planet by being a community,
• 25:22
  by working together and being part of each other's
• 25:26
  lives. And now we're going to say, oh, we're
• 25:28
  so smart now. We know technology. We don't need
• 25:31
  people anymore. I can just do an update and I'll
• 25:34
  get a bunch of likes. Like that doesn't replace,
• 25:37
  you know, a high five, a handshake, a hug, eye
• 25:40
  contact. You don't get that from doom scrolling.
• 25:44
  Exactly. I think a beautiful example of that.
• 25:47
  Are you familiar with Podfest in Orlando? Are
• 25:50
  you going? No, I presented this idea at 2020
• 25:54
  in Podfest. It was the first time I did it in
• 25:56
  2020. But yeah, it's a beautiful example of like.
• 26:00
  all these people that you meet virtually throughout
• 26:02
  the year and like who are doing similar things
• 26:04
  to you and have a passion for podcasting doesn't
• 26:07
  matter the topic we're all podcasters and the
• 26:10
  bones of what we do is very similar and like
• 26:12
  getting to all be together for three days in
• 26:15
  one space like there is no energy that i can
• 26:19
  even compare i'm literally like my suitcase got
• 26:22
  pulled out today i'm packing for right now i'm
• 26:24
  so excited just to be surrounded by 2 000 other
• 26:28
  people who are doing the same thing i am essentially
• 26:30
  it just feels so good i was actually a speaker
• 26:33
  last year but my wife had to have surgery it
• 26:36
  was one of those like three day like you have
• 26:38
  three days at the side and i had to leave in
• 26:40
  three days so i had to cancel last minute i hope
• 26:43
  it doesn't go i don't have a strike against me
• 26:45
  i would love to get back and present from the
• 26:48
  stage again present this concept of live podcasting.
• 26:50
  I will tell everyone down there. I'm a speaker
• 26:53
  there this year. So whoever's in charge of me,
• 26:55
  I will be telling them, hey, call my guy, Jeff.
• 26:58
  He had a family emergency. Let's forgive this
• 27:01
  one. He's okay. Hopefully everything works out
• 27:04
  for future events. I believe in you. Okay. So,
• 27:07
  well, Jeff, we're kind of creeping up on my sweet
• 27:10
  spot of time. Probably going to go a little over
• 27:12
  because like I said, you've lit a match and dumped
• 27:14
  gasoline on my brain. Let's take this from two
• 27:16
  sides. One, let's start with if the person. who
• 27:20
  has a podcast, they want to accept your challenge.
• 27:22
  They might not live where you are. What advice
• 27:25
  would you have for them to like, hey, here are
• 27:28
  the next three steps to take to make this come
• 27:30
  to life and meet my challenge? Yeah, work backwards,
• 27:33
  right? You know, start with where is it even
• 27:35
  possible? If you wanted to do this, if it's just
• 27:38
  your basement and you wanted to have friends
• 27:40
  over or your patio on your back porch or your
• 27:43
  backyard and you want to have a summer night
• 27:45
  where, you know, you put a tent up, you set up
• 27:47
  the equipment. And you just hang out in the backyard.
• 27:50
  You have drinks and barbecue and just have a
• 27:53
  good time. You know, start with that. That's
• 27:55
  how we can do that. That's the place we're going
• 27:57
  to do it. If there's a bar or a restaurant or
• 28:00
  library, see if that space is available and then
• 28:03
  work backwards from there. I talk about this.
• 28:07
  all the time so reach out to me i'm happy to
• 28:10
  help point you in the right direction i'm happy
• 28:12
  if you're ever traveling to pittsburgh i'll book
• 28:15
  a day on the stage for you like you want to cut
• 28:17
  your hey i'll be in pittsburgh for some reason
• 28:19
  on wednesday you know february something the
• 28:22
  night is yours i will give you that night let's
• 28:24
  go through it we'll practice and you will record
• 28:26
  your show and we'll have some good times doing
• 28:28
  it just reach out to me i will help you establish
• 28:32
  that but i always say if you don't have a space
• 28:34
  think of it in reverse think about the backyard
• 28:37
  idea. Think about the coffee shop idea and start
• 28:41
  small, be reasonable. Don't go and rent a hotel
• 28:45
  conference room. That's going to cost you 10
• 28:47
  grand, you know, by the time you factor in everything,
• 28:50
  don't go renting things, do the proof of concept
• 28:53
  first, using those free events, like a corner
• 28:56
  of a bar that has a stage. It isn't busy at two
• 28:59
  o 'clock on a Saturday after football ends or
• 29:01
  something, you know, find free spaces and just
• 29:04
  test the water. Can you get five people? Can
• 29:06
  you get 10 people? And then start to build that.
• 29:09
  Can you get to 20? And then maybe you need a
• 29:12
  little bigger of a space. The library has this
• 29:14
  auditorium that you can rent for like 50 bucks
• 29:16
  for some reason. So it's not priced correctly
• 29:19
  for some reason. And you can find these spaces
• 29:22
  to do these shows. And you're just going to have
• 29:25
  the most amazing time putting it together, you
• 29:28
  know, that build up to the day of the show, doing
• 29:32
  the performance. And then when you get off stage,
• 29:35
  Getting off stage is better than everything else
• 29:39
  that you did leading up to that moment. You have
• 29:41
  such energy. You have a rush. You're meeting
• 29:45
  people. You're getting real -time feedback. People
• 29:48
  are shaking your hand. They may thank you for
• 29:50
  the previous episode you did on how to macrame
• 29:52
  cowboy pants. That changed my life. It changed
• 29:55
  the whole way I macrame. And you get this real
• 29:59
  -time reaction, and you just build this community.
• 30:02
  that you don't get when you release an MP3 file
• 30:05
  and don't hear any feedback. Work backwards.
• 30:08
  Start there. If that doesn't work for you, reach
• 30:11
  out to me. Jeff at poduty .com, P -O -D -U -T
• 30:13
  -Y .com. That's my email. It goes right to me.
• 30:16
  I will answer it and I'll point you in the right
• 30:19
  direction. Okay, next question. What about for
• 30:22
  someone like me who is fascinated by this? If
• 30:25
  I wanted to get started on like potentially building
• 30:27
  my own theater myself, give me a couple of baby
• 30:30
  steps I could take in that direction. Yeah, even
• 30:33
  the same way. Like, I went through an incubator
• 30:35
  program. There are places in your community that
• 30:38
  will give you certain resources to help you develop
• 30:41
  things in the arts category. We did business
• 30:44
  plans. I had consultants. I had financial consultants,
• 30:47
  legal consultants. A thing like that is a great
• 30:51
  way to structure this idea so that you know,
• 30:54
  like, okay, this is all I have to do to break
• 30:56
  even. I can do that. That's with my budget, what
• 30:59
  I've allocated, the runway that I have for the
• 31:01
  year to two years. I can do this, and I know
• 31:05
  it's tangible in my head. Just like when you
• 31:08
  were asking about people who wanted to start
• 31:11
  doing this, you should do the same thing. If
• 31:13
  you can find three or four podcasters maybe in
• 31:16
  your niche, or maybe it's a business consulting,
• 31:18
  or it's something that you do in your area, and
• 31:22
  you find two or three others, put a little event
• 31:24
  together. Go to a place, you know, that would
• 31:27
  be a great place for a library auditorium and
• 31:29
  sell your own tickets. You can use services like
• 31:32
  Eventbrite or Facebook events. If you have a
• 31:35
  Stripe account, you can build your own ticketing
• 31:36
  page yourself. You don't have to spend money
• 31:39
  to be able to do this and test it out. Put a
• 31:41
  bill together of three or four podcasts. Maybe
• 31:44
  there's a main speaker, a keynote speaker. You
• 31:47
  just built yourself a little event. It's probably
• 31:48
  a $50 ticket. You didn't even realize like, oh
• 31:50
  my goodness, you sell. 10, 20 tickets to there.
• 31:53
  There was a thousand bucks. You give each speaker
• 31:56
  a hundred bucks. That's more money than they
• 31:58
  probably ever made. You walk away with 500 and
• 32:01
  you take care of expenses and tip out everybody.
• 32:03
  That's a good night. So, you know, work backwards
• 32:06
  again and, you know, start to, who can you work
• 32:10
  with? Cause that's one thing. I think one mistake
• 32:11
  I made. is while i did a ton of virtual events
• 32:14
  prior to this and i could announce that i'm going
• 32:17
  to do a virtual event and i'd have it filled
• 32:18
  up in two or three days with like 36 podcasters
• 32:21
  i didn't do that homework in pittsburgh so i
• 32:26
  would strongly recommend doing it the way i'm
• 32:28
  suggesting to you see if you can put a show together
• 32:31
  or three or four podcasters and start to get
• 32:34
  some momentum once you do if you do an event
• 32:37
  once a month and you get a thousand bucks that's
• 32:40
  probably in an area like I'm in, that's your
• 32:42
  rent and change left over for electrical. There's
• 32:45
  ways to do this. And I would suggest doing it
• 32:48
  backwards from the way I did it. I love that.
• 32:51
  That is some really solid advice. My brain's
• 32:54
  just flaming right now. It's just on fire. And
• 32:56
  I think that this is such a cool concept. And
• 32:59
  I feel like it is attainable for... Everyone
• 33:02
  from the person who just started podcasting to
• 33:05
  someone who's been at it for five years and maybe
• 33:06
  is hitting that thousand downloads an episode.
• 33:09
  Like this is something everyone can and should
• 33:12
  be at least attempting to do for their show.
• 33:16
  And this has just been an enlightening conversation.
• 33:18
  I'm so glad that we matched on Podmatch because
• 33:21
  this is filling my soul with nothing but happiness
• 33:24
  right now. I'm not going to lie. I will tell
• 33:26
  you one side effect of learning about this. And
• 33:29
  I do podcast meetups once a month where I buy
• 33:31
  food and pizza and drinks for everybody. If 20
• 33:34
  people come in, there's about six of them that
• 33:38
  are the light bulb goes off. And their mind is
• 33:42
  just reeling for the next three hours. They got,
• 33:45
  what if I did this? I'm an author. I want to
• 33:47
  bring authors to the stage. Could I do an interview
• 33:49
  with another author? Can I bring this person
• 33:51
  in? I want to do a, can they be a remote guest
• 33:53
  too? Like we didn't even talk about the technical
• 33:55
  aspects of this. You could actually, when I do
• 33:58
  Padooty in the News, our news podcast, usually
• 34:01
  I'm on the stage and my guest is Minnesota. You
• 34:04
  know, they're in. Washington. And you could be
• 34:07
  on the stage in front of an audience with a virtual
• 34:10
  guest anywhere in the world. And you're all in
• 34:13
  this together. So it's just so much more potential
• 34:16
  than you ever think about. And when you start
• 34:18
  seeing how this whole thing works together, you
• 34:21
  can't stop thinking of ideas. It's almost impossible.
• 34:25
  That's the best kind of ideas are the ones that
• 34:27
  just keep sparking more of them. Well, to wrap
• 34:29
  this up, I would love to know what podcast you
• 34:32
  have been listening to lately besides your own.
• 34:34
  Like what have you been really vibing with? I'm
• 34:36
  an old school. I'm an old guy and I got a long
• 34:38
  commute. So for years, I've always listened to
• 34:40
  Bill Burr in the morning. Just the stream of
• 34:43
  consciousness. What he talks about isn't as important
• 34:46
  as how he does that for 30 minutes. It's pretty
• 34:48
  incredible. Whitney Cummings. I like a lot of
• 34:50
  comedians and their backstories. Even I listened
• 34:52
  to Bert Kreischer for a while, but not recently.
• 34:54
  I like Pod News, School of Podcasting. I like
• 34:58
  Grow the Show. Even the Beancast was one of the
• 35:01
  first podcasts I've listened to like in 2007.
• 35:04
  It's kind of a panel show with the marketers.
• 35:06
  Marketing Over Coffee, Joel's Six Pixels of Separation,
• 35:10
  which is now Thinker's One. I like those shows
• 35:13
  where you're challenging my ideas and you're
• 35:16
  challenging my norms. They all push you in some
• 35:19
  way or another to kind of think outside the box.
• 35:22
  I love that. And then last question I have for
• 35:25
  you. It's more of a statement. I guess I don't
• 35:27
  know if it's really a question or not. Go ahead
• 35:28
  and plug all your shows and wherever you can
• 35:30
  find you. Easiest is Padooty, P -O -D -U -T -Y
• 35:33
  dot com. Six letters. It's less letters than
• 35:36
  Netflix. If you're going to waste time typing
• 35:38
  Netflix dot com, you're stupid. Type Padooty,
• 35:40
  P -O -D -U -T -Y dot com. You'll learn all about
• 35:44
  the theater, our upcoming shows, upcoming events.
• 35:47
  If you like what I've been talking about and
• 35:49
  you want to hear about other people doing this
• 35:50
  around the world, I do a show called Padooty
• 35:53
  in the News. It's news .padooty .com. N -E -W
• 35:57
  -S for news .padooty. P -O -D -U -T -Y .com.
• 36:01
  News .padooty .com. Or just search for Padooty
• 36:04
  in the News. And it's every week we do six stories.
• 36:07
  I have a guest host. I'd love to have Abby come
• 36:09
  on to be a guest host. We talk about six stories
• 36:12
  from a 10 ,000 -foot view. So if they're doing
• 36:15
  shows in arena. or they're just bringing their
• 36:18
  community together. We had one last week about
• 36:20
  a high school starting a podcast club. and eventually
• 36:24
  start to do live shows with the community. So
• 36:27
  we talk about what's happening in the world of
• 36:29
  live podcasting, and we try to help business
• 36:32
  owners and podcasters apply that to their strategy.
• 36:35
  How do you do that show live? How do you use
• 36:39
  those tactics to make your podcast better, whether
• 36:42
  you're just recording or whether you're doing
• 36:43
  it live in front of an audience? It's Padooty
• 36:45
  in the News. It's my passion project. We record
• 36:47
  live two times a week. tuesdays and saturdays
• 36:51
  we do one 10 a .m saturday mornings which we
• 36:53
  call coffee with paduti in the news i like that
• 36:56
  if my host is in theater we walk down at a local
• 36:59
  coffee shop we grab a sandwich we grab some coffee
• 37:01
  we have breakfast together and then we record
• 37:03
  the show we just did one with somebody in the
• 37:06
  audience came out today with jessica sutton Great
• 37:09
  episode. And again, six news stories about live
• 37:11
  podcasting recorded live. Very meta. If you want
• 37:15
  to reach out, have questions about live podcasting,
• 37:17
  I will help you no matter where you're at. If
• 37:19
  you're in Pittsburgh, even better. We can get
• 37:21
  together at the theater. But if you're just here
• 37:23
  in Minnesota or Baton Rouge, I will help you
• 37:26
  figure out how to do this live because I really
• 37:29
  want to see. Little places like this pop up all
• 37:31
  over the country so that I myself on the weekend,
• 37:35
  I could go to Cleveland, I could go to Baltimore,
• 37:37
  I could go to Cincinnati and do like these little
• 37:40
  tours of my show all over the country. And so
• 37:43
  you guys got to catch up to me. So everybody
• 37:46
  else start thinking about how do I do a podcast
• 37:48
  theater in my hometown? Oh, believe me, I got
• 37:50
  the wheels a turn in. I'm already like thinking
• 37:52
  about what's for sale in my downtown area and
• 37:55
  what can I convert? Well, Jeff, this has been
• 37:58
  such a treat. Thank you so much for doing this.
• 38:01
  And of course, I'll have all the links in the
• 38:03
  show notes below. So you don't got to search
• 38:05
  too far to find our new friend, Jeff. Thank you
• 38:07
  so much for coming on. You're welcome. Thank
• 38:09
  you.