083 - Podcasting and Livestreaming in 2025: Stand Out, Repurpose, and Grow Your Audience (Part 1)

Podcasting and livestreaming are more than just hitting record—they’re about strategy, engagement, and adaptation.

Explore how these platforms are evolving in 2025, and how creators can leverage video, repurpose content, and improve audio quality to maximize reach and build long-term audience engagement.

In this episode, I share clips from January's Mavens Talk, a monthly audio event I co-host with my friend and colleague Gillian Whitney, Live Stream Strategist / Book Author where we discussed podcasting and livestreaming. 

Topics included:

🔹Podcasting & Live Streaming Are Evolving - LinkedIn’s shift in audio events signals that livestreaming will play a bigger role in podcasting moving forward.

🔹Video Enhances Podcast Promotion - Using video clips from recorded episodes is more engaging than static audiograms and can help attract more listeners.

🔹Repurposing Content Maximizes Reach - Turning live streams, audio events, and podcast transcripts into multiple forms of content (clips, newsletters, blog posts) extends their lifespan.

🔹Audio Quality is Critical for Retention - Investing in good microphones and audio-enhancing tools (like Adobe Podcast) ensures a high-quality listening experience, which is essential for keeping an audience engaged.

🔹Podcasting is a Long-Term Brand Builder - Unlike short-form social media, podcasts hold attention for longer, allowing deeper connections with your audience and positioning you as an authority in your niche.

➡️ Watch for Part 2 with me, Gillian, and Michelle B. Griffin 

🔷If you're listening to this podcast, video feels way harder than it should.  If you're ready to make video a priority, and not spend hours making a 60-sec video visit BlackDogMarketingStrategies.com

 Join me in The Lab on Substack, my space to test, tweak, and share smart ideas worth chasing, especially around video, content strategy, and showing up online without burning out (or wasting your weekends) Click Here

📌 When you’re ready to make creating engaging social media videos a priority, I offer 1:1 coaching and done-with-you video services. 😉 Click Here

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➡️ Need more? Check out the 300+ videos on my YouTube channel Click here for my YouTube channel 

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For additional insights, connect with Annette Richmond and Black Dog Marketing Strategies on social media.
Substack: https://substack.com/@annetterichmond
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetterichmond/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com...

Transcript

[00:00:09.140] - Annette Richmond

Hi, I'm Annette Richmond. Welcome to Content Marketing School, where we will dive into content marketing strategies, specifically for B2B professionals, consultants, and entrepreneurs. Discover how to confidently create engaging content and leverage content marketing to elevate your brand and grow your business. And if you enjoy the show, don't forget to hit that follow button. Now, let's dive in to today's episode. Thanks for joining me for today's episode. Now, today's episode is going to be a little bit different. Each month, I do an audio event with my friend and colleague, Gillian Whitney, and I'll be sharing clips from some of our events on Content Marketing School. This is part one of our January event where the topic was podcasting and live streaming in 2025. Well, good morning, good afternoon. I guess I jumped the gun a little bit there putting up our little graphic. Gillian and I are excited to be here today for our second or third live streaming audio event.

[00:01:21.590] - Gillian Whitney

I lost count. I lost count. And obviously, I lost ability to handle the controls.

[00:01:30.280] - Annette Richmond

Okay, let me just double check. So thank you so much, everyone, for being here with us. I can see that we are live. Please do feel free to come up and join us on stage and chat with us. I can see if you are in the comments, if you're making a comment, we can see that in the studio. But please do come up and chat with us because we could chat with each other for a longest time, but it's more fun. And that's what audio is all about anyway and why we love it, right? Because it's all about having people, having conversations.

[00:02:14.110] - Gillian Whitney

And just to remind everybody, the link is in the comments. So just click on that and you'll come into the back, you'll come into the green room. So that gives you a couple of minutes to like, and then we'll pull you up on stage. So there you go.

[00:02:31.880] - Annette Richmond

Yes. And I'll just put up our little audio guidelines. We just give you some information about the whole video event. Okay, let me just change our thing here. Okay, there we go. A little backstage, flipping around. So yes, I have remembered this time to put the link in the notes here So if you are watching the the audio event, the link is right there in the comments. And as I'm looking at it, I'm not seeing it, but This is so weird. Okay, so here we are. We don't know if people are listening or not because we're in this live audio event. So why don't you, I don't know, kick us off, Gillian, and talk a little bit about our topic today and why we picked it.

[00:03:35.100] - Gillian Whitney

Okay, so if I'm remembering right, our topic is about podcasting and livestreaming in 2025. And I think Obviously, livestreaming is important to support podcasting because you and I both have a livestreaming show that we repurpose into a podcast. And even with LinkedIn, taking away the LinkedIn audio events and then creating these new ones, which are packed by basically live streaming platforms. So if you don't have a live streaming platform, you can't do audio anymore. So it just shows you that this stuff is going to be more and more important moving forward. A lot of people just do a podcast on its own, so you don't have to have a live streaming tool to do a podcasting. You recently went to Podfest, Annette, and I'm interested to hear what you've learned and what you're going to share there because I didn't get to go to that. So that's a cool thing. And I would just say that the prediction is coming in that podcasting is going to be even more important in 2025. Some of the stuff that I've read is the more niche your podcast can be the better because I think there's just so many podcasts out there right now.

[00:04:53.070] - Gillian Whitney

I think the latest stats I said I read somewhere was, of course, I can't find it now, But it was... Oh, here it was, 95 million episodes on Apple podcast. That's a lot of podcasts. That's a lot of podcasts. So it just makes you realize podcasting is big. And I can't think of a better tool to build your brand than podcasting because it's so intimate. When you're listening to a podcast, the listeners are taking everything into their ears. So It's amazing. And while you're competing with social media videos and posts and stuff where you've got three seconds to hook people and then off they go, a podcast, typically people are listening for 30 minutes. So it's amazing for building your brand. But anyways, that's just what I wanted to mention, kicking it off. So Annette, over to you.

[00:05:53.850] - Annette Richmond

Yeah, I think so, too. That's one thing that I think Clubhouse taught me and taught, I think, a lot of us, although I was podcasting before Clubhouse. So there is that, which is like a whole other story of how I started podcasting during the pandemic because I had nothing else to do. But I think that Clubhouse was one of those things that taught a lot of us the power of connecting through the voice, having something that you can listen to in your car. I would be driving and listening on Clubhouse, cooking, listening on Clubhouse. And that's the same way it is with me now with podcasts. I listen to podcasts while I'm cooking. I listen to them when I'm in the shower because I like to have something going on in there, and sometimes I get some good ideas. And Yes, I went to podcast, and I just want to give another shout out to anyone who's in the audience. I see the link is there to join us on stage. If you want to come up and chat with us, we welcome you to do that. Click on the link in the comment and you will come backstage.

[00:07:03.120] - Annette Richmond

I will see you. We will see you backstage. And turn your camera off because we are audio only. And then my suggestion is to mute the event, which I'm watching our event, but I have it muted. Otherwise, you will hear an echo hearing it. Then, of course, mute your mic if you're not speaking. And when we see you unmute, we'll know that you want to speak. Talking about I'm going to talk about Podfest. I was so excited to go to Podfest. I ended up getting a ticket shortly before a podcast from Buzz Sprout, which is both of our podcast platforms. And I thought, oh, okay, let me go. And I will tell you that I had such a great time, and I learned so much that I already signed up for VidFest in August in Atlanta. So I'm going to that. So one of my biggest takeaways, and I think it's interesting, because I think both of our podcasts are both are audio only. And I don't think Buzz Sprout, at least at this point, offers doing video podcasting. So I've always recorded my solo episodes, and I think you and I both do those.

[00:08:23.040] - Annette Richmond

We do our solos. I've been doing them just recording my voice. That's what you do, too, correct?

[00:08:31.990] - Gillian Whitney

No. My solo episodes are lives. I don't record any... Let me just backtrack. I don't do any podcast episodes that aren't a repurposed live. Oh, okay. So I'm live first and no edits on my podcast. So it's like what you see is what you hear. And so even when I do a solo episode for my podcast, That means I did a solo live. And I never record those. They're live in the moment, because if I recorded them, oh, forget about it. I'd be editing till the cows come home. So just, no. Me and the cows, we go live.

[00:09:16.210] - Annette Richmond

Well, actually, I think that's a great strategy. So I do record my solos, but you know me, I'm a fan of scripts and notes and things like that. So it helps me stay on track. But after going to Podfest, I am now going to be recording all of my solo videos on video. I've decided to use Restream for my platform because I can record my video, then I can have it create its own magic clips of my video, plus I can download the transcript, which I can use to repurpose for other content. You know how it is today. Certainly with me, I take my transcripts, throw them into AI, and have it create other little things or throw a couple of transcripts together and bam, I have AI turn them into a newsletter or something like that. Edited by me, of course. So it's my writing, but big to little organizing. The reason I'm going to do that is for the promoting and the repurposing of the videos because I think you're the same way. At this point, I promote my podcast, not necessarily my live shows after the fact. And so I want to have that video that I can just create clips of to use that to promote my podcast rather than using audio clips.

[00:10:54.080] - Annette Richmond

Now, we both use Buzz Sprout. They have a very simple... You can go on there and just create video clips in moments. You put a graphic on there and you're good to go. But I'm thinking and my understanding from the person I learned, I learned this from a lot of different people there, that having you on video speaking is more of something that will engage people to want to go and listen to your podcast. So that's my new strategy in a nutshell. So what do you think?

[00:11:36.030] - Gillian Whitney

Well, first of all, did you say that you sounded like you said you're using Restream, but I thought you had said before you were going to use Riverside.

[00:11:44.430] - Annette Richmond

Well, you're right, and I fumbled my word there. So if this was a podcast that I was recording, then I would have to go back and change. So thank you.

[00:11:55.720] - Gillian Whitney

And me and the live cows are very happy.

[00:11:59.300] - Annette Richmond

Oh, good.

[00:12:00.200] - Gillian Whitney

Because we can always correct stuff. We can always correct stuff. So, yeah, I just wanted to just confirm that because.

[00:12:05.910] - Annette Richmond

Yes. Okay.

[00:12:06.630] - Gillian Whitney

I thought you told me Riverside. So, okay, that's good to know. And it's interesting. I've actually been experimenting with... I do audiograms for every single one of my podcasts. So I do the live first. Lives are always on Tuesday, live, or sometimes they're previously recorded. So this week, and this is only for my down-under friends because it's the middle of the night for them, or it's so early in the morning, I wouldn't dare ask them to get up at 5: 00 AM to be on my show. For them, I do a previously recorded live, but I don't do any edits, and then I just push out the live previously recorded. So that's what I did this week. But anyways, on Tuesdays, I go live. Wednesday, I drop the podcast. The audio podcast goes out to five platforms, including YouTube podcasts as well. That's another another one as well. And you were actually were the one that told me about that. But Spotify and iTunes and all those other great places. So anyways. And then I like to do an audiogram to promote the podcast, the audio podcast. My first experiment was always just having a nice graphic that showed the guest, and then I would have captions so that people could hear something was going on and they'd turn it up.

[00:13:30.070] - Gillian Whitney

And then so you'd hear the person talking, and then you'd see the captions going across the screen. Then I did another experiment and I went, I wonder if it would be more engaging instead of having the purple in a circle bubble like I had on the show art. What if I made that a talking circle, which I experimented, and I did. I just had the person talking. Then recently, I decided to level it up in January because, hey, it's a new year, do something new. I've started doing audio clips that are total video. It's just the whole person in the clip. Anyways, always be experimenting, and that's what I'm doing now. Babe, always be experimenting. I'll let you know how that goes. I've also started making my clips be vertical because I wanted to repurpose them over to YouTube and get that additional life because I thought, this This is crazy. I have an audio podcast on YouTube that I don't promote. So that was my thoughts.

[00:14:37.270] - Annette Richmond

No, I love the way you did that. I thought it was very clever where you had the voice part in the graphic, and I'll have to check out the video. And I'm with you when it comes to... Because I repurpose all of my LinkedIn Live shows on my podcast as well, and I don't edit those at all. I I take off the LinkedIn intro and outro and add my podcast intro and outro because I use different music because the live streaming my live stream to YouTube, as I believe yours do as well, and YouTube is so finicky about royalty free music that I make sure I use different music for them. But I don't do any editing either. The only My perception is sometimes, very rarely, I'll have a guest come on and start going on and on about their services. And then I cut that out. I do. I cut that out when I put it on the podcast. One reason is because I don't like it. But another reason is because oftentimes people don't realize if I'm a guest on your podcast today, well, you do it quickly, but the episode might not air for a month.

[00:16:00.020] - Gillian Whitney

That's true. People could even be listening. Sometimes, even if it pushes out quick, like mine do, some people will go back and they'll listen to something that played a year ago because a lot of times that content is valuable and it's timeless. You don't want to just say, Oh, I'm launching this new thing tomorrow. I have a free masterclass. It doesn't make sense in the context.

[00:16:27.890] - Annette Richmond

I agree with you 100 %. I don't even announce my own things in my podcast. If I'm doing a webinar or something like that, I use dynamic content at the beginning and the end. So with the end, the message now is Oh, if you're having trouble with video, blah, blah, blah, sign up for my cheat sheet. But that's something that I can change across the platform whenever I'm ready. I wouldn't even talk about that in my episode.

[00:17:01.270] - Gillian Whitney

Yes. I'll tell you, you think what you said before about editing off the beginning and the intro and the outro before you put it up on the podcast, that is something that you could just go, no brainer, right? That's actually not true. I have seen a lot of people that don't do that. Especially if you're using StreamYard within one minute It countdown or whatever. You just think about somebody sitting there listening to this ding, ding, ding, with no voiceovers. And I think it's really important to brand your podcast with a custom intro that's for the podcast. And I know both you and I do that, where it's potentially a different audience. They don't know who you are. So you have to have that custom intro and outro. And that's why you want to use a platform. Sounds like we're selling Buzz Sprout stocks today.

[00:18:07.430] - Annette Richmond

I know.

[00:18:07.860] - Gillian Whitney

But you want something that's like, you don't have to fiddle with that has the intro, has the outro, It's like a sandwich. It's like the bun is always sitting in Buzz Sprout. So I just literally put up my podcast and it's got the intro and the outro. Not everybody does it that way, but that's a good idea to have an intro and an outro. Maybe your You customize it, you change it. You might say, this week I'm talking with Annette, and we're talking about da, da, da. That's fine. Or maybe you got a special, you're sponsoring or whatever. But the thing is to just take your whole StreamYard with the intro and the intro makes no sense.

[00:18:47.180] - Annette Richmond

I'm with you 100 %. And I mean, I do take the intro and outro off. I use Camptasia, and I switch it up that way because I use what you're using for your intro and I use it for advertising, promoting something, stuff that I'm doing. But I agree with you. I have had, since I did my first podcast, I think it was May 2020, and I've always had original music that I purchase, royalty-free music. And I try to change... Every year, I like to change the intro music a little bit, or certainly when I change my podcast. But yeah, I think that, too. I think it adds a little certain something to it. And it's really not hard, and it's certainly not expensive either. So I'm with you. All in for the branding.

[00:19:43.100] - Gillian Whitney

Love that.

[00:19:44.900] - Annette Richmond

So I do want to give a shout out to Marcia, who has joined us and says, hello, my Maven Queens, Chilly and Whitney, and then at Richmond. So happy to see you, Marcia. Please come up and join us if you like. The link is in the comments. So one of the things that, and we don't have to get into a whole conversation about audio events because we've done that plenty of it. But I will say I am really enjoying this new audio because I'm using the audio on my podcast. So one hour of Media Mavens, and I will say that I do edit that a little bit, but not much, makes two episodes on my podcast. So that's like an extra bonus for me. I'm all about repurposing.

[00:20:35.730] - Gillian Whitney

I think we should. I think it's a good strategy to get as much bang out of every buck that you can. It's like everything old can be new again if you just put it a different way. And I remember once years ago seeing something, I think it was by Gary Vynerchuk or something, and he was like, did this thing and showed how he made 72 pieces of content from one thing. It's like, you actually can do that. We end up not doing it because we just get distracted and we're just like, oh. But you think about it. It's like you'd be making quotes, you could be You could be doing this, you could be doing that. It's just whatever we can do. So yeah, I think it totally makes sense. And the other thing, too, is every time you're on a podcast, and this is why I think it's great to be on podcast, is that all of a sudden, you just have such clarity when you're trying to express your thoughts. I was talking with somebody the other day, and they were talking about when they sit down and they try to make a video or say Make a statement, it comes out so stilted, and they overthink it, and they overcomplicate it.

[00:21:53.310] - Gillian Whitney

But then they'll be on somebody's podcast, and somebody will ask them a question. And it's just like, I I don't know. The magical muses take over, and what you say makes so much sense. And you're just like, I need to go on a podcast every week just to keep my thinking straight. Right? It makes so much sense.

[00:22:15.320] - Annette Richmond

I know. And it's so funny that you would mention that because I'm a fan of the script, not for the how-to videos where you're demonstrating, but for short-form videos. I'm a big fan of the script or even notes because it can keep you on track. And I was just having this mini conversation on the side with this video coach on this video community that I'm in. She was talking about using a script and using this other strategy. But anyway, my point is, when people decide, they say that, oh, if you use a script or something like that. And I think you mean the same thing when you're talking about when they're recording their own podcast, is they don't do it the the way they speak. If I write a script and I would say, Well, you want to go here? That's what I write because that's how I speak. When people get so focused on doing stuff that they write it like they're writing an article or something like that, and they write it to impress people, and it's just crazy because it doesn't sound like them. I don't know about you, but I get a lot of questions on which platform to use to record a podcast.

[00:23:37.890] - Annette Richmond

So what are your thoughts on that?

[00:23:39.980] - Gillian Whitney

There is no one right way to do everything, and that we have to find out what's more comfortable. I was laughing the other day. I was looking at how many different video editors I have. It's like I have Camtasia, I have Capwing, FlexClip, I have a a bunch of different ones. And what I discovered is that each one I use a different way. If you're comfortable doing Zoom for the podcast, what's most important is the audio quality. If you have good audio quality, it doesn't matter what tool you use. Do you agree, Annette? It's really about, is Is it getting the job done?

[00:24:32.280] - Annette Richmond

Yeah, I'm with you 100%. It is just about doing it. The more you do it, the easier it gets. It's all about practice. But yeah, I think so, too. Audio quality is so important because that's all people have in most cases. I think I would imagine even if people have listening to a video podcast that they may They're likely be in the car or something like that, and they're not looking at the video.

[00:25:04.520] - Gillian Whitney

Exactly. Probably the biggest tip I can give anybody with podcasting is invest in a tool that you can use to make your audio levels good. Because even if I have a good microphone, if my guest has a terrible microphone or they're using their speaker that's built into their computer or something like that, I have to figure out a way that when it gets on the podcast, I'm not too loud, and then you can't hear the other person, and then the person listening wants to turn it up, turn it down. They don't want to do that. So you want to equalize your audio levels and then make them the best quality. So there's two things that are going on with your audio editing. Now, there's a lot of tools out there, Audacity, and you can use all these tools, but they're really hard. They're really hard to muck with. I actually found a program called Adobe Podcast. It's free to start. You can just get a free plan. The only thing is that it limits how many minutes you can do. I eventually decided, okay, I think my podcasts are at least 30 minutes, so I had to get the paid plan.

[00:26:25.160] - Gillian Whitney

But it is so worth it. I just upload the MP3. It makes a really, really clean wave file. And then that wave file is not only equalized for both speakers in the volume, it also makes it sound a little bit more bass and less trouble. So you think of somebody listening to the podcast with their iPhone or their Android with their headphones in, you want that good quality sound. So that's what I do. And I don't think I could do a podcast if I didn't do all that extra stuff.

[00:26:59.460] - Annette Richmond

Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you on that, too. I agree with you on that. Another common question is, what platform do you use? We both use Buzz Sprout, but I've also heard somebody asked about Lisbon. What do you think?

[00:27:18.060] - Gillian Whitney

I know a couple of people that have used that one. So, yeah, that's a good one. So, yeah, I think the important thing is you want to look at something that is going to allow you to grow down the line. A good test is to see, for me, what was really important for me, because I used to be on Anchor, which got bought by Spotify, and it was completely free. And I loved Anchor. I used that for three years. I was happy as a clam. But the one thing I didn't like about Anchor was, even when it got by Spotify is, I couldn't embed those podcast episodes into to a LinkedIn article, and that frustrated me. So when I was looking for, okay, now I'm going to do this new podcast, the Easy Peasy Books podcast, I'm going to just go professional from day one. So I actually asked Danette for what are you using? And she said, I'm using Buzzbraout. So I took Annette's podcast and I embedded it in an article just to see if it worked, and it did work. So then I knew I was good. So if you're thinking about Lisbon, think about what would you need to have down the road?

[00:28:32.160] - Gillian Whitney

Do you want to embed it in a LinkedIn article? Then go find somebody who's using Lisbon, get one of their podcast episodes, and just test. So I think it's all about what you want to do. But I think I know several people on Lisbon, and they've been very happy. So I think that's a good tool.

[00:28:51.020] - Annette Richmond

Thanks for listening to this episode featuring clips from Media Maven's Talk, my audio event with Gillian Whitney. I'll be sharing part two you in an upcoming episode. If you find the Content Marketing School podcast helpful, please give us a five-star review. It's the only way I'll know that I'm on the right track.

[00:29:13.570] - Gillian Whitney

See you next time.

[00:29:20.710] - Annette Richmond

Thanks for tuning in to Content Marketing School with me, Annette Richmond. If today's insights have inspired and resonated please share this episode with a friend. And if you haven't already, hit that follow button to keep learning and growing with us.