Live Shows, Community, and New Podcast Trends with Guest Amy Boyle
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Live Shows, Community, and New Podcast Trends with Guest Amy Boyle

Last day of June was that six months of the year already completed. Halfway

through the year today I've got a great guest joining me.

We got Amy Boyle. Speaking of phenomenal, it's the Poduty live

show called Poduty and the News. We're live at the Poduty Live Podcast Theater at

downtown Tarentum on Corbet Street.

Amy, do you know what time it is?

I'm gonna say it's go time. What time?

The only live news podcast about

podcasting from the stage.

Poduty and the News.

Poduty and the News.

The only live news

podcast about podcasting from the stage.

Oh, the only live news podcast about podcasting from the

stage, It's Amy Boyle speaking of phenomenal. Amy, welcome

to the show. Thank you for having me. Great to be here. So

glad to have you here. You really fit into what we're trying to build here

in the theater. Multimedia journalists, photographer, podcaster.

You're doing all the things that we love. Tell us a little bit about

speaking of phenomenal, a little bit about your podcast and how can people connect with

you? Sure. Well, you can find me on all

the different platforms for podcasts at Speaking of

phenomenal, the podcast itself was born out

of a photography project that began in 2018.

I called the photography project was 52

Phenomenal Women. It was supposed to just last a year where there

was a story a week kind

of cross between women crush Wednesday, if you remember that old

hashtag. And

sure. Oh my goodness. Brain freeze. You

know, you would think it would be the heat, but instead it's a brain freeze.

Humans of New York, where I did a feature a week about

a phenomenal woman that I thought people should get to know.

And then people self nominated and the

network of that just kept splintering out into the world. Well, that

one year project turned into two, and then as that

went into two years long, lo and behold,

Covid came along and people didn't want the project to

stop, but I kind of had to physically stop because it got hard to take

photos at, you know, a million miles away from one another, it

seemed. So there became the

reason to start podcasting. And now going into season

six, I have speaking of phenomena, where I talk to women

around the United States and around the world. I just had

season six begin last two weeks ago with the women from the

uk in fact. Oh, awesome.

After six seasons, how many total episodes? How many interviews have you

done over the six seasons? We're now at 65.

Oh, wow. Wow, that's some great stories. Speaking of phenomenal.

Speakingoffphenomenal.com I believe is the website as well. That's correct.

And eakingoffenomenal on Instagram. Awesome.

I'll have all those links in the show notes. After tonight's episode, Amy

gets inducted into what we call Paduti and the Crew. Anybody who's ever been on

the show gets their own special page on the website with all of Amy's

links, connections, shows, this show that she's on today,

plus any future episode. We'd love to have you back, come

back on and do a future episode that'll all be on Amy's dedicated page.

All around podcasting news, showcasing her expertise, showcasing

live events and the journalism and the podcast thing. You're going to hear all those

perspectives over the next half hour and you'll be able to connect with her

over at news.piduti.com Amy,

are you ready to get into our stories? Absolutely.

Husband and wife podcast hosts Angel Lakita Moore,

better known as that Chick angel and Marcus

Tanksley recently wrapped up the final stop of their live tour

in Washington, D.C. their podcast, is this Going to Cause an

Argument? Began after followers encouraged a couple to start recording

conversations together at home. What started around a table in

a small room has grown into a national live tour stop.

It's been in Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and

Washington. The live show goes far beyond simply recording an

episode in front of an audience. Fans participate in

relationship debates, volunteer for interactive games, and

become part of the entertainment. And you mentioned getting started

during COVID and this kind of reminds me of a podcast

that probably started during COVID You have this

couple at home or they're going to start an argument and, and people are like,

hey, these things that you talk about all the time, that you argue about, you

know, in front of us, that should be a show. This is so entertaining. I

love going out to dinner with you. And they're really taking, you know, something

that was personal to them and putting it into this package, whether it's the

podcast or social media post. And they're kind of finding

their audience, they're finding their community and they were able to take this

on a six road tour. You know, it was Chicago, Atlanta, Los

Angeles, Philly and Washington. That's no small feat. So, you

know, this is an idea of, you know, taking your idea, following

your passion, following your heart and getting out in front of people

and making something that's, that's bigger than you ever thought an argument

on a couch would be. Amy, what were some of your takeaways?

Well, what I thought was interesting from the interview that they did for NBC

was that angel mentioned she had been

an actress or she was on TV and that.

So she has stage presence and you could tell that

and that when she had children that she had put that aside.

So there's this desire to perform and you can see

that and how she is. And then part

of the, maybe the conflict is the way she could get her husband to

participate is when they wanted to do. When she

would produce content, the thing that he would participate in would.

Was this. And that was like, that was. That was a compromise, but

also maybe the, the fun give and take. So I thought that that was a

really neat way to work together, but also

play off one another where she still gets to fulfill

and. Or, you know, scratch an itch she's wanted to do for quite a while.

And it's clearly working. And so I just thought that was very

a. A good way of using talents that may have been waiting

to, you know, get out of. Out of dormancy for a

while. And they had some photos during the interview up on

stage where they were kind of. They were. It didn't look like they were sitting

down. A lot of podcasts, like I'm doing right now, I'm sitting down,

but they were up on their feet almost like a comedy show. And

it seemed like. It seemed like it would bring the energy up. It was a

different way. And when I talk about these next evolution of podcasts, like

what's coming down the road. Well, here's a podcast that they had

to adapt for the stage, and they wanted to bring that energy,

bring that emotion. And from some of the photos, it

looks like a good portion of the show happens upright, which is

unique for a podcast. And to have that moving around

the stage, working the audience, going side to side, playing to the back of

the room. They're adding an element to a podcast that you're not going to

get in an MP3 file. You're going to get that in that once in a

lifetime, unique opportunity to see them perform live on

stage. And that was something I really loved about the way that

they approached performing live. Absolutely. I think she

said something about cocktails and crafts. I mean, they had like a whole.

Behind her were like a bunch of buckets of markers and things. I can only

imagine what comes out of that. After

she said, sometimes the shows go an hour, hour 45. That could be

very interesting. A lot of fun. Yeah. And think about,

you know, what are. What are you interested in? What niche are you playing

in? How can you take that to your community, to your audience.

And is it just hanging out the girls night out, doing some

crafts, having some wine, having little snack trays?

And everybody loves charcuterie, so you know that

as well. But having these events and incorporating your community

to really give them back something that they can't get

anywhere else is to have that time with you, to share your expertise

with them and to make these memories, make these moments,

make it really special as a one, once in a lifetime

opportunity. Absolutely.

Well, we'll keep it moving. Every story I seen this week is about

Cannes Lions. Creators and podcasters were a major focus at

this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creation Creativity.

During one live discussion, YouTube Chief Business Officer Mary Ellen

Coe and creator Brittany Broski discussed the

growing competition between YouTube and Netflix for podcast

talent. Broski said she continues to publish on YouTube because of its

creative freedom, direct connection with audiences, and lower barrier to

entry. Co acknowledged Netflix's recent push into

podcasting, but said YouTube remains a platform where creators build

audiences and businesses. And then also big headliner

Oprah Winfrey shows up and she appeared throughout the festival

highlighting the growing influence of creators in

today's media landscape. Yeah, I mean,

Oprah was like quite the headline being

all over the place and just coming off the heels of

literally being in Chicago just a week ago from being at the Obama

center opening here. Apparently

she'd been courted for 14 years to be a con, so that's

huge. So this has been no small feat to get her there.

But if the one of the things that was huge as

well is if people have been following. She just

worked a deal with Amazon

to move her podcast platform to Amazon

and is also taking the backlog of her

previous Oprah shows over to Amazon. So there's other rumblings going on

behind and as well as you know, her talking about what's going

on with your mission is more than, you know,

your reason to be here is more we should think bigger about why are we

fully here as people and all these sort of things, which I think is we

should all think about that. But I thought this was a very interesting time

to, to put a big, a big

display there. But to the point about YouTube and Netflix,

I think this is going to be a battle we're going to see for a

while. And I tend to believe that a

lot of people are still going to stay loyal to YouTube

because of the fact that the barrier to entry is so low. And

I think people still want to be their own creator first.

I'd love to hear what you think about that? Yeah, I think YouTube

has a tremendous advantage over Netflix just in ease of

discovery. It's so much easier to find and watch a

podcast on YouTube than to do one on

Netflix. I have subscriptions of both. I have

never even seen a podcast recommended to me on Netflix.

And my life is podcasting. I have a theater. I have. I'm doing

live podcasting performance. All I do is search a talk about

podcast, and Netflix has yet to deliver one of

these podcasts that they're producing to me. But YouTube, every

single day, I'm getting clips, I'm getting recommendations.

It knows how to push those podcast people. So from a discovery

perspective, I think YouTube is right now is

outperforming Netflix multiples to one. And the

thing I loved about when you mentioned Oprah showing up is

Oprah's like the first lady of independent production, of

owning your media, owning the things that you create, the production

rights, the distribution rights. I mean, she pioneered so much of that

throughout the late 80s and 90s. And for her to put this

off, not put this off for 14 years, but wait until the time was right,

I really think her being there is a great

testament to the power of podcasting and what you

can build. What can you accomplish if she can build, you know, Harpo was her

production company. Now she's doing this with podcasting and Amazon,

and she's saying, like, hey, there's something here.

I'm going to make an appearance and talk about these things. I think it's

time for a lot of people to listen. A lot of businesses to get involved,

a lot of independent creators, consultants, people who are

just passionate maybe about Legos or macrame. You know,

get involved, you know, find out, you know, what you love to talk about.

This is the time to build your media and your media empire. You could be

the next Harpo. Absolutely. And she said it multiple

times about. To really think about

who you are meant to fully be and not to. You know,

she's like, everyone's here to think about marketing, to think about what we're

selling and what the show is. But ultimately, you know,

to use the words fully human, Fully human

in a very AI time, I find that

stuck out and rang loud in my head

right now, especially coming out of her mouth. So,

you know, when Oprah speaks, people listen. We'll just leave it at that.

I want that on a T shirt. Oprah speaks.

I'm listening. Well, let's go over to our third story.

Keep it moving right along here. And I love this one. You Know me.

Live podcasting have a little theater space here. And this is

the Thrifty Traveler. They drew nearly 300 people

and it was on my birthday, June 12th. I just turned 50.

Happy birthday. Thank you. I've been milking it all month. So

look at the crew that they have with them. They have a team of nine,

10 people. So this is something you should. You could probably

aspire to if you want to take your show on the road. If you want

to produce something bigger than your podcast in the basement and entertain

people, this podcast was able to entertain 300 people.

The thrifty Traveler podcast recently hosted its first live show at the

Parkway Theater in Minneapolis, drawing nearly 300

travel enthusiasts from across the United States and even

the Netherlands. The evening featured a live podcast recording

travel trivia, audience Q and A and stories from the

host about memorable travel experiences and mishaps. The

recording is also going to be released as a special bonus

episode. Well, I really

loved it because I just. In mid April, I saw

Rick Steves on tour for the on the Hippie Trail. And you

know, I mean, Rick Steves draws a crowd wherever he goes, but in particular

for that particular book, which made me think about

this because the Thrifty Traveler and him and

Rick Steves talking about his very first trip being extremely

thrifty, where I think he might have spent all of $175

or whatever. So I just love

their enthusiasm and then the

fan base that they grew out of this. They just seemed to

have so much fun. The cardboard cutouts of people taking pictures with

them. It just seemed like they all had such a good.

What I think is just charming and also

effective in this is I know the people

probably. I know the people probably. That sounds really definitive.

It would seem effective that the mishaps are

part of what is the big draw. Right. People don't want to

know why it was perfect. They want to know what went wrong

and how the did you overcome certain aspects of things.

And also. So I think that's something that's huge

to hear. I think humor is probably a big draw with these

folks. So I just thought that this was just an

extremely charming way to do it. And the fans just

seemed to have a grand time. And as for a first try

putting this together, kudos to them. Yeah,

not too shabby. And they threw out all of the engagement

tactics. They had audience Q and A. So people got to feel like they're part

of the show. They did trivia. I'm sure there were answers and threw out

prizes to the winners and they told stories and they had all these.

Yeah. Like, the mishaps that you're talking about, they really made this an immersive experience

for their fans. And to draw 300, that's pretty

impressive for the first time out.

Absolutely. Yeah. I think, again, talk about,

you know, community and belonging being such a big deal in all

of these live aspects that we're talking about

today. I think in an aspect of

where podcasting can feel solo or it's just in literally

our head or our AirPods or earbuds or whatever, you know, to

be together to all of a sudden see somebody else that are like,

oh, you like the show, too? And now have a human connection and find somebody

else in your community or in the Netherlands, per se. Like,

they drew like, this is great. Now have. You know, it's

a group of friends that you wouldn't normally have, and you could take it from

there. Yeah. That's something that people don't talk

about is when you go to a podcast about traveling, chances

are people in the audience are also traveling lovers, too. Like, they

want to get out. They want to learn the tips and tricks. You're going to

make new connections, new friends sitting right next to you. Even might be

somebody who becomes a lifelong friend or a lifelong connection just

because you went to the same type of event, you have the same type of

interest. So, you know, when there's a podcast in your hometown, get out there,

support them. These events are like, they're usually not more than

20, 25 bucks. So even if you have the worst night of your life,

you know, you're not breaking the bank to go out and

possibly make some new connections and meet some new people. So, you know, support local

podcasting in your community, in your hometown. Get out there, get out, get

those tickets. Absolutely. Go get those tickets.

And I love this story, too. It's very important. It's

44 and HSE hosts a live podcast panel on

nightlife safety. So if you think about all the people who are going out, they're

clubbing, they're staying out, blowing off some steam, dancing away the

night, dancing away that stress from the work week, well, there's also

a dark side to nightlife, and this was a great podcast idea to really

coach and train and look out and teach people to look out for the certain

dangers when they go out. This happened on May 28th.

44 magazine and Ireland's Health service executive

hosted a live podcast panel at WIGWAM in Dublin.

The discussion focused on nightlife safety, harm reduction and

informed decision Making the event was based on findings from a

national survey examining attitudes towards nightlife safety

and emerging drug trends. DJs, journalists, venue

operators and public health leaders participated in

the live conversation. I thought this was a great way

to get a message of care out to a community

that is already together by doing

outreach and education in a packaged way

through, like, through your DJs and through your

artistic group in your community, but also having

ways of maybe not having to go raise your hand and

say, I want to know more, but I can do it in a way where

I'm just curious about. I can go sit and listen to a panel or go

to a podcast or, you know, find out different

things that maybe you wouldn't have known otherwise. So I thought this was a

genius way to bring people together and to show,

based on statistics that they know that this, this

community needs these services, needs to know

more. They, you know, you know, this is

just a tremendous way of doing and reaching their

group. Yeah, tremendous public service announcement. I think back

to when I was a kid. The best I got was like a commercial after

school where a guy cracked some eggs into a pan and said, this is my

brain on drugs. That was kind of the, the talks that we got

in the 80s and 90s. But an event like this, it's a current

event. People like going out, they like seeing panelists and

going to live podcasts and to be able to get together

with the health service executive and this

magazine, pairing a cool magazine with some government services

to deliver this information to club goers or even people who

are new in this country. You're graduating high school, you're going to

college. By the time you're at your third year in college, you start. Sure, that's

probably not the first time you start drinking when you're 21, but you start going

out at night a little bit more. You need to know about

being safe and

these red flags that you're going to find at night, you're better off to know

them going into it than experiencing it in real life. So having an event

like this, I think really does deliver that information

to the right people at the right time. Definitely.

Yeah. I think that just being proactive in this, but also keeping

it from people that are your peers and not being

talked at, being talked to, is also critical,

even critical, More critical. I love this next story too. I've done a

lot of work with Sarah Bradford, SJ Childs, and we've done about four

autism conferences, the one in 36 mix, and

they're just a great Time where we. We actually feature

about a dozen podcasters over two days. And this one's

called the podcast Neurotypicals Don't Juggle Chainsaws, which

I'm already in because of the name, recently recorded two live

episodes at Gosforth Civic Theater in England. Hosted by

Dr. Kate Fox and Nick King, the event featured live

podcast recordings followed by audience questions and discussions.

The podcast explores autism, adhd, and

neurodiversity through conversations designed to be informative,

honest, and approachable. Wonderful. I mean,

I think so many of us either need this

podcast ourselves or know somebody in our immediate family

or people that we come in to play with at work

or through school. And just. I love

the approach of the 30 minutes or less

shows. I also love treating things with humor. I

just thought this, the way the show is done

and taking it live and making it approachable is just,

oh, we should be seeing more things like this.

Yeah. As soon as I saw the name, I just knew how much

fun the event's going to be. A lot of times, like,

maybe when I was going into some of these events with Sarah, I didn't understand

the spectrum. I didn't understand all these different areas of

neurodiversity. And the things that I really started to learn

from putting myself out there is.

There's just like these slivers that are really just personality traits

that I see some people have that have, you know, I have some of the

same exact. Like, you can really start to relate to, you know,

what neurodiversity is by just hanging out and being there and being

part of the. Being part of the event, being part of the community. You really

start to just see, like, okay, this is all. This is what this is.

I get it. And, you know, and I also have things like

that. You'll see how relatable some of the things are

that. That you'll. You'll encounter through some of these meetings. And

it's just. It's unbelievable. Like, it's. It's one of the things that'll light you up.

And it's. It's a whole new experience, a whole new perspective when you

get in there and you really immerse yourself in the community.

And again, the name just drew me in. As soon as I saw that, I'm

like, oh, this is going on the show. Neurotypicals don't juggle chainsaw. So

follow that link in the show notes. Check out the show. It does have

the kind of humor you're looking for, a way to deliver

the information in A way that's enjoyable and fun and

actionable and just that you want to be there. It's an

environment that they're creating where you want to go

participate in and you want to be a part of that community as well.

That's excellent. I was at, I don't know if you're familiar with

air, the association for independent

radio producers, but you should

look them up. I was at one of their galas

in New York last month and I met a woman who. Her

name is Angela and she has an. Her whole

group and a podcasting group for

autistic culture. Podcast group. So she

puts together podcasters, all that. All they do

is podcast in this space. So this would be something that

I could see a bunch of them coming together. So they all

have different places and spaces to have a whole network

of different shows together, which is pretty awesome. Yeah. Why not

put a little festival together, get some shows together, you know, have a night

out. Yeah. And if you really want to have a night out.

Zoom, zoom, rev, rev. Got some nascar.

We have the NASCAR weekend at Sonoma Raceway featured more than

just racing as part of the fan experience. Nikki and Bri

Garcia recorded a live episode of the Nikki and Bri

show before hosting a meet and greet with fans. The weekend also

included live music, an AIR show and other fan

activities demonstrating how live podcasting

continues to become parts of major sporting

events. Major events, major conferences, they're all incorporating

podcasting as part of the entertainment. This seems to

be such a trend. It was interesting

to see NASCAR in the list of the different

articles we were going to talk about today. You know, I'm in Chicago

and we just sent

NASCAR on its way from. We had it here for a couple of

years. And what was interesting is it was a test run. Right. To see

how non traditional locations could do

with these big sporting events. Right, right. We had NASCAR whizzing through

the streets of Chicago, but with it, it brought different

groups and associations that normally wouldn't be associated

with racing culture. And so it brings to this

point, like these ladies who talk about non things

racing related, you know, wine and

girl talk and all these other things to bring their live

podcast to Sonoma, which is their kind

of audience. That makes perfect sense. But these

kind of pop up live events, we're going to be seeing more

of it. I just. And that does make sense to see.

Why not bring these live experience and then you might be gathering

new new audience members and they're kind of going, what's going on?

And then you have new People walk by your setup

and kind of wanting to know more about what your show is all about.

Yeah, it's a great way to cross promote, a great way to meet new fans.

Whether or not this is. I don't recall if they were NASCAR specific or if

they were just there as part of the entertainment, doing their show

and kind of cross promoting, bringing their fans to nascar,

introducing NASCAR to their fans. And I just love this type

of this idea. We've seen this with music, we've seen it with

comedians for years, but now it's kind of time for podcasting to

take center stage and to become the main event

at some of these other events or sideshow events. You get that with

podcasting. Yeah. I mean, in January,

I was in San Francisco and just like

Edinburgh has Fringe Fest, well, San Francisco has sketch

fest and that's, you know, for comedians. But

I would say a third of the schedule was all live

podcasts. And it was the most interesting thing to see.

Like, that's what people, that's what the tickets were selling out for, were

live shows of other people, people's podcasts. You know, it was

Rachel Dredges. Woo, woo. Yes. She's a comedian, but it was

her podcast and it was the climate talk guys and

it was the other people, and it was like on and on and on. And

these were the kind of events that were selling out at what would normally

be a traditional, like, comic event. So,

you know, these trends are live is where it seems to be

where it's going right now. Yeah, I'm a little bullish on

live events. I really think, you know, we hear so much about videos,

the future, but I do think that there's a place for

performing live, performing podcasts in front of an audience. We know it works

for comedy, we know it works for music. Why not for podcasting? And

this is a great example of what they put together at this

raceway. And I want to. All I want to see is more and more events

like this. I agree with you.

Well, Amy, I warned you. It goes by so fast. That's our six

stories already. This is the part of the show. One

last time, I turn the stage completely over to you.

You can plug, promote, talk about anything you'd like.

Amy, the floor is yours.

Well, I just want to thank you for this opportunity to chat with your

audience today. And if anyone here

is interested, I would love to bring you on over to speaking of

phenomenal, where tonight, 12 episodes a season,

I talk to a phenomenal woman a week. And

it would be great to have you join the journey and join our community.

I'll have all those links in the show notes connect with Amy Boyle.

Speaking of phenomenal, Amy, do you remember

what time it was?

It was go time, but now it's fiduti and the news time.

How about it's time to go time? It's time to go time.

Yes, we're done time. No. What time is it?

What time is it?

The only live news podcast about

podcasting from the st.

The only live news podcast about

podcasting from the st.