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Assorted Conversations
Are you intrigued, inspired and just have to learn more when you find someone who is boldly embracing their dreams? Make plans to join me every other Wednesday as I share stories from everyday people following their passions and pursuing happiness.
Have some laughs, learn about a specific passion and develop an understanding of how and why these guests are turning their dreams into realities, plus possibly get inspired to begin your own journey!
Assorted Conversations
Ep. 48 - The Infinite Seat Theater Conversation with Jeff Revilla
What if a 40-seat room could feel as big as an arena? We sit down with Jeff Ravilla to unpack his “infinite seat theater” concept—a creator-first model that blends the electricity of a live audience with the reach of a global stream. Jeff’s journey runs from a teenage skateboarding obsession and a basement skate shop to leading digital marketing by day and building a hybrid podcast venue by night. Along the way he collected the skills—ecommerce, video, email, community—that now power a stage designed for intimacy, interactivity, and scale.
Jeff shares why independent podcasters thrive when they own their format, keep decisions close, and get real-time feedback from people in the room. He breaks down the numbers that matter for most shows: four $10 tickets can rival the value of 1,000 ad-driven downloads, and a single live event can fund months of hosting while generating high-credibility assets—on-stage photos, crowd-lifted clips, and new superfans. We dig into how he bootstrapped the venue with smart finds, why he refuses minimums or surprise A/V fees, and how his 50–50 door split plus targeted local promo gets butts in seats without draining creators.
We also look ahead. Podcasting lacks a true “middle tier” between home studios and arena tours. Jeff outlines a path that mirrors comedy: small clubs, bigger rooms, festivals, and touring weekends that pair local audiences with global viewers. He explains how hybrid interactivity turns a stage into a portal—fielding questions from people in the seats and the stream at once—and why affordable entertainment matters for communities that want a night out without a triple-digit ticket. If you’ve wondered how to grow a show without chasing CPMs, or how to add credibility that sponsors and fans instantly recognize, this conversation will reset your roadmap.
Subscribe for more creator stories, share this with a podcaster who needs a spark, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.
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Contact Jeff: jeff@poduty.com
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Credits
Music Credit: True Living by Patrick Moore
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Thanks for tuning in. Remember, hit that like, a follow, or subscribe button wherever you're listening right now so that you don't miss any of the great conversations coming up. Thanks, and here's this week's episode. Everyday people following their passions.
SPEAKER_03:That's probably like one of the highlights of my life so far, just being able to be creative like that. Something I've always wanted.
SPEAKER_04:And then I decided to get another hive, and that turned into a lot of hives.
SPEAKER_00:As long as I can do that, I want to be a good citizen, help people out.
SPEAKER_06:Putting themselves out there, taking chances, and navigating challenges along the way.
SPEAKER_07:I I absolutely identified with having stage right because, you know, anytime I went on stage, I just felt like I was having a hot attack.
SPEAKER_00:Very first lap, very first practice session, I crashed, turned the car upside down, made a spectacle of myself, and I got back on that horse and started riding again.
SPEAKER_06:As they pursue what makes them happy and brings them joy.
SPEAKER_02:As long as people are having a good time and I have the opportunity to put smiles on people's faces, I love what I do.
SPEAKER_04:I have done things that I never thought I could do. To have somebody tell me how real it looks and how, you know, from their actual memory. Because that's telling me I captured what I was trying to get.
SPEAKER_06:Welcome to Assorted Conversations. I'm your host, Helen. Hello, hello, hello. The first episode of 2026. Hard to believe that just five years ago, Assorted Conversations was just in the planning stages and not even a reality yet. Are you into making New Year's resolutions? Me, not so much, but I am a planner and I've got lots of podcast things planned for 2026. Within the first six months of this year, I'll be sharing conversations that span puzzles, kung fu, aphrodisiac foods, just in time for Valentine's Day, and even a conversation about bananabol. If you've never heard of bananabol, Google it and watch some YouTube videos. I promise you won't be disappointed. I'm also working on a brand new podcast project tentatively set to launch in March of this year, and it's a complete departure from assorted conversations. However, it is something I live every day, and the reason you didn't hear from me during 2024 and the better part of 2025, so stay tuned for that one. Now jumping into this week's episode, I had the opportunity to sit down with a gentleman who has created a way to connect folks looking for affordable, fun, local entertainment and podcast fans around the world with podcast creators in a live podcast setting. His infinite seat theater concept is starting to shape a new direction in podcasting and live entertainment. So take a listen to this week's episode, and I'll see you on the other side. Today's guest is an expert in leveraging technology and creativity to build vibrant, community-focused events, having dedicated over 20 years to digital marketing and a decade each to podcasting and live streaming. He hosts the entertaining and educational Stuff I Never Knew podcast, challenging listeners with fun trivia and unique insights. On top of that, he's the visionary mind behind PodDuty Live, a transformative podcast theater and live venue located in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, where he continues to innovate and bring people together through dynamic live and virtual events. I am excited to welcome Jeff Ravilla to Assorted Conversations. Hi, Jeff.
SPEAKER_01:Hello, hello. Thank you for having me. How are you? I'm doing great. It's a nice Thursday night. It's for we're having uh this almost summer weather in the winter in the northeast, which I'll take.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, absolutely. Same here in Boston. So you are quite accomplished in the digital marketing, the podcasting, and live event in community in support of communities. You're so accomplished in all of those areas. I want to find out what happened first, what happened next. So, where did this all start? Where did your entrepreneurial spirit come from?
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's going to take you way back to maybe when I'm 14 years old, eighth grade area era. I was way into skateboarding. And when I got into skateboarding as a kid, I knew that I wanted to someday open my own skate shop, open my own skate park, and we had DECA classes, which were like business classes in high school. So I immediately signed up for that. Every year we had to do a project on business. My business was a skateboard shop and a skateboard park. I did every it's all I thought about. I drew ramp drawings all the time to how to build the park. I was just obsessed with this idea of doing something that I loved. I loved, I was all in on skateboarding. I did that for 20 years of my life. And I just wanted to be in that community. I wanted to immerse myself in it, and I wanted to give back. And that's that all came from that those business classes when I was like 14 years old. Just as a kid who loved skateboarding, who wanted to do that his whole life.
SPEAKER_06:What a riot. So did that ever translate into anything?
SPEAKER_01:It did in 2000. So I I graduated in the 1900s. Uh me too. By two 2001, I was uh actually the year 2000, I started buying skateboards in bulk and selling them out of my parents' basement. And like people would be coming to the house at all hours of the night, three in the morning sometimes, to just grab a couple of skateboard parts because they were out filming or doing something. So I'm sure the neighbors, you know, thought I may have been doing something, you know, not reputable, but here I am just supplying kids with skateboards so they can go have fun out on the test. Right. And that grew and grew. And I grew out of my parents' basement in about a year, and I found this building, and I offered this guy eleven thousand dollars for the entire building, and he took it, and he's like, Yeah, that's a good deal. And I was like, Okay, wow, it was like 8,000 square feet, and you know, it had its years on it, but it was it became a skate shop, my mail order hub. So I built a mail order company out of this building, and the other half of the building was the skate park. So you know, by the time I was 25 years old, I had you know really achieved that 14-year-old boy's dream.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah. Wow, you were living the dream that young.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, I got a taste of it early.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Now, how how did you go from skateboarding to digital marketing, podcasting, and then you know, uh developing your your live podcast theater?
SPEAKER_01:It really was the skateboarding, once again. While I was there in 2001 through 2008, the internet was really becoming a thing. Social media was becoming a thing, video was becoming a thing. E-commerce was the where I grew up in, and I'm learning ad words. I was building my own social networks, I was producing my own videos, I was taking photos, and I was doing email marketing. I kept I built lists of like 20,000 local skateboarders that was emailing all the time. And it turned out that that eight years of running the skate shop and skate park and immersing myself in being progressive with digital media was the best education I ever had. It was better than going to college because I will when I had to close the doors in 2008, whenever people couldn't pay their mortgages, well, they also stopped buying skateboards. So I I kind of got wrapped up in an expansion and then the economy kind of collapsed. And I'm sitting there like, I can't sell skateboards to anybody. What am I gonna do? And I started just talking to people and they're like, Oh, how do you do this? And I would tell them, Oh, it's a simple thing. You just go da-da-da-da-da, and it's done. They're like, Well, I could never build a website before. I don't, how did you do that? Like, I don't know, but I've been doing it for like eight years, and that skill set that I learned was a very valuable commodity on the market. And and I have I've had two job interviews since I closed the skate shop, and both of them I went in with a pitch, like I was an agency. I said, Hey, you're gonna hire somebody? Here's what I can do, here's my slides. And back then I actually printed out the slides and handed them like a staple packet. And both both times on the way home, they called me to come back to give me the job. So my my last job, I'm celebrating 15 years there now as the marketing director of a large auto group in western Pennsylvania. It's the greatest job, it's the greatest work balance, the greatest family that I've worked for. And I really I just love it. Like I love I'm still doing that. I still have that playground where and I'm still selling things on four wheels, and I'm just having a great time, you know, during the day. That's my daytime life, and just having fun pushing the boundaries, progressing. And you know, I my team that I've built, we're kind of regarded in the auto industry as these creative thought leaders, as the people who are are pushing video boundaries. We our channels, for if you think about a car dealership, nobody wants to watch videos on YouTube of a car dealership, but we we have over 75 million organic views of our channels. So it's just a testament to how good the team is and the type of content that we're putting out there that we're all in. We're immersed in this, this is our life, this is what we do.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, that's fantastic. So your entree with the whole skateboard experience and then parlaying it further with the automotive experience. I'm assuming, but I don't want to assume, podcasting became part of something that supported the business venture.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, creating media was part of it. I like I've created a I had a YouTube version for skateboarding in like 2006. I had a message board in 2006. So those are old things, or it was just a I think of Reddit, you know, but more chaos back in 2006. And that that idea of pushing the boundaries of what can you do? What you know, what what can you do to build community, those things were always present. And over the years, I get married, I have kids, and you know, trying to raise the kids, and you just focus on career, family, kids. But at a certain point, Jeff loses himself. You know, he's not being creative, he's not pushing those boundaries as much anymore. And and one of the things that got me through the skate shop was I in 2006, and I'll show you my little I got my uh first color iPod. Oh wow, it's even engraved 2007. I I I was I just fell in love with podcasting very early on, and I I saw the potential, I loved the independent nature of it. I loved how you could create something, you own it, and you produce it, you put it on the world, you don't answer to anybody. And that had that skateboarding and that punk rock mentality that I always loved. And here I was, you know, about 20 2010 to 2015, just kind of you know, immersed in family. You know, I love I got two great daughters who are growing up now and well married and I'm going to work all the time, but I'm not fulfilled creatively. Right. So that kind of circled back to like, okay, how does Jeff become Jeff again? Like, I I you kind of lose yourself when you're raising a family, not not in a bad way, but your focus is on different things. You tend to focus on yourself less. And as they got older, they needed me less and less. And you know, I went like, okay, what am I gonna do now? I got you know, I need to do things, I need to get some of these thoughts out and to get some of this creativity out. And and I went marching headfirst into podcasting.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, what a riot. So it really didn't have anything to do with the business, it really was more of a self-fulfillment avenue for you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was very much of a passion project. It's a lay, it's still a labor of love. You know, I I love putting a show together and and that that nature of be being your own media conglomerate. Yeah. I create something, I produce something, I answer to nobody, and I put it out there, I put out the creative vision that I see, and I can release that. And I don't have any cre producers knocking on my door. I'm not taking notes, you know, from the the uh president of the corporation who wants a yo, can we work in some more Tide commercials or something? Right. You know, I can do what I want, and I and that's my product. I own it start to finish.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. It it's funny, it's part of what drove me to do, you know, what I'm doing. You know, I just the the creative fulfillment in an avenue outside of my day-to-day, outside of my job, outside of my family and friends and you know, other hobbies that I have. I I really I love talking to people. And everybody's got a story, and and every story needs to be heard. And I'm probably the worst person to sit next to on an airplane.
SPEAKER_01:So that yeah. Well, it makes the flights go shorter if you have someone to talk to.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, well, you know, if you want to be talked to, yes, absolutely. Looking back over your 20 plus years of all the digital marketing that you did, what moments do you think shape the way you approach creativity now?
SPEAKER_01:Uh having the the like all the lab, right? This the skate shop lab, that really is freeing. And I think that mentality of being a skateboarder, of of looking at objects differently than most people, looking at stairs differently than people look at, or benches or garbage cans or curb cuts, or you know, you you look at the world differently because you're a skateboarder. You're looking to expand the boundaries of what a park bench could be, because most people would just see it and sit on it. I'm trying to ollie up it, grind on it, slide on it, tail slide, no slide, you know, do all these other things and have a different vision. And all that, all that thinking and and reimagining things always transfers over to creative sides. If you look at graphic designers and marketing people and advertising, a significant portion of them come from counterculture backgrounds. They do come from skateboarding and they come from music and the punk rock mentality, that DIY mentality, because they look at the world differently. They're they're born to think outside the box. And and that's where all that came from for me is those moments of I th I saw something, can I recreate it and make it my own? Or you know, I'm influenced by something, but I don't want to just copy it. I want to learn how they did it, pull it apart, and then put it back together in my own vision, my own imagination. And and that mentality is what carried through into those early days of marketing and that the lab mentality that I had.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. No, I that's a great point, you know, about the skateboarders, that they look at stairs differently. They look at curbs there. It it it it really makes a ton of sense. And I think that's why really good marketing, you know, where people are always looking for something to be eye-catching and attract attention and be engaging and be meaningful. And sometimes the same old, same old just doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's it's amazing as I get older now. The the people that I meet, when I meet, the more creative people I meet, the more of them have some sort of this counterculture background. It's a it's like a breeding ground for adult creativity. Yeah, it's a true and automotive. I meet a ton of creative skateboarders and that were formerly skateboarders. We're not all skateboarders anymore, but on the graphic design side, they they always love you, watch skateboarders, they always like to draw little pictures and logos and emblems, and that becomes a skill set that they develop. They go to school and learn graphic design and layout. Yeah, and it's they're just filled with the creative people tend to be those those people who thought outside the box a lot when they were kids.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Oh, that's that is so awesome. What does podcasting allow you to do creatively that traditional media doesn't allow for?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, everything. I'll start with the obvious, right? I mean, there's you have an idea, you can you can work it out over your lunch, you can come home and then put that idea down and and start to work with it, play with it, edit it, you get some feedback, you know, show it to a few people. You you start it's always like that that big box of marble, and you have to find out what's inside that marble, and you start chiseling away, and all of a sudden it's a statue of David. It's this world-renowned piece of art, right? And that's what podcasting is, it's an it's a box, and you can build whatever you want out of that box, you can chisel it away, you can make anything you want, and and that power you don't get in in traditional corporate media. If I wanted to take the same trivia show that I produce and we goes to the cable company, if I wanted to be in the cable company environment producing that, I'd have to, I'd have a boss, I'd have to bounce that idea off of. There'd be a creative department, there'd be a uh probably a boss above my boss that would say, Well, I don't know if you sign off on it. Then that boss sends it to the CEO, and then they send notes back down, and and then all of a sudden, all these little people have their hands in your vision, and they're chipping away at your start. You know, you're now you got the David statue with the no arms, right? And then all of a sudden they they take the set off because they got to get sponsors and advertisers. So you get the power to be yourself that you don't get when you're in a corporate environment, a traditional media environment.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. So tell me about your podcasting journey. Where you know what what did you do first and and how have you moved throughout podcasting to get to the point where you saw the need for a live theater?
SPEAKER_01:I started my first journey was in 2010. I started a podcast with a local person. We didn't know anything. Yeah, I think we tried using Skype, and I think there was a plug-in for Skype that was called like Pamela's and or Stacy's or something like that. And you could we were trying to record audio in 2010, and we did like three or four episodes. We didn't know what an RSS feed was, we just kind of like uploaded an MP3 file to a website and said, Hey, there's our podcast. And and she was so talented, she actually went on within like a couple. Weeks of us doing this and became like the marketing director for Gerardelli Chocolates. Like very talented, well beyond where I was in my career. And I kind of like meandered through and I putzed around with stuff. And then in 2015, I stumbled across a platform called Blab. And the internet is kind of divided by people who were there in 2015 for Blab and those who weren't. And if you were there, you'll have a community for the rest of your life. You'll have a family of blabbers that were that if you cross paths, you're like, oh my god, you were in Blab. And it was the first like four-in-the-box live streaming service. And it had this amazing social element where it would bring you 30, 40 people into your room in the first five minutes of going live. It was just an amazing way. And people were giving props and like coins would pop up, but they weren't real coins like they do today. And you could make the screen shake, you can make it snow during the you could do all this chaotic stuff. And I decided to I was gonna try to do a game show. And I did the first couple shows, were a disaster like everybody's first podcast. And we would do like a tournament of eight people playing trivia until one person remained, and it was chaos, and it was beautiful at the same time. Because at the end of the show, I walked away with oh my goodness, I just connected 30 people across the world. We're we're having fun, we're laughing together, we're having this good communal moment, and the thing that Blab did that was kind of ahead of its time is this whole time it was recording everything, and you could download the audio and video for free. Oh wow, which ended up becoming Blab's downfall. Right, they had no business model, and it grew so rapidly in 2016, 2017 that it became so unstable, it just collapsed under its own weight and they eventually shut it down. And that's where this journey took me is there was nowhere else that replaced Blab. And for years, people would wander around trying to find Blab. A few people have tried to recreate it, like get vocal or go kiki, and it just didn't have the blab magic. But what I did know is podcasting for me became something so much more than just recording an MP3 file in my basement. It became this community event, it became a way that I could have like almost like a party. We're hanging out, we're having a good time. It's a social event and it's fun. Right. And that mentality of how can I do this? If if no one's gonna build this, well then maybe I can go out into the world and take this to the world. It's got maybe as like a little bit of the gospel of podcasting, right? And I I called it theater anywhere, was the initial concept. And I have pictures of it where I built this thing that could fit in the back of a sedan. It was a podium, some speakers, a mic stands, and I could take it anywhere. And my goal was maybe I could just go to a park, and maybe like a lot of parks have those clamshells, and like I could rent some park space or along the river walk near, you know, on a trail, hide behind a tree and like pop out and like interview people, and just take it anywhere. Because wherever I go, I realize that's where the podcast could be. I could go to a friend's house, you know, in the basement to their backyard, and it really opened the world for me of where can you record a podcast? And at the same time, a friend of mine was opening a coffee shop, and he said, Hey, you've got this whole thing, you're doing this thing, you're doing this trivia thing. And there's a video of this where you could see the very early days of me performing trivia live. And he's like, Hey, I got this parking lot next to the coffee shop. Why don't we set up one night? We'll do a whole live event. I'll bring in a taco truck, we'll have coffees and drinks for everybody. It'll be a good time. I said, I said, let's do it. The problem was we scheduled it for March 30th, 2020.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, oh.
SPEAKER_01:Which was really bad timing.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And we ended up, we it was like, you know, the world shut down on I I think it was March 13th, was the schools, and then the state was like March 20th. And we're like, well, they said two weeks, you know, from the 13th, that's only the 27th. I think we'll still be good. Like we should still be able to have the show. And obviously, we ended up canceling it. And I I kept thinking about this idea, and we we did reschedule it, which is what that video. There is a video of me doing this, but we rescheduled it.
SPEAKER_05:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:So I wasn't trying, I'm going on a little bit of a tangent there. The this idea of I could take this podcast and do it anywhere became something bigger while we were in lockdown. It became okay, well, if I'm if I can't be there live streaming it, well, then maybe I could be at home, I could have an audience, maybe in my backyard or have a party and have people over and live stream it. And that's when I realized that you you're not bound by the constraints of the the four walls that surround you. Your your theater space now becomes infinite. So even if you look behind me, for I don't know if you I know you don't, I know you're just audio, but for those of you who see any pictures in the show notes, there the theater has a 40 seats, but it can live stream to thousands. And and this concept that I developed from all the shutdown and being away from everybody and and wanting to be able to reach everybody became this infinite seat theater concept where you could take this into a town, you need a small piece of real estate, uh, you know, 1600 square foot building, you could set up 40 chairs, you could live stream to thousands, and and have be the same size as Madison Square Garden. Right, right. On these this little real estate space. So this little footprint becomes something so much bigger. And then all that all that came from Blab, from trying to do live shows, from presenting this idea at Podfest to doing it live in a theater, all because I just want to have fun and reach the most amount of people.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. And that's awesome. That's awesome. I love what you do. I want to backtrack a little bit. Now, did the theater come up prior to you doing other podcasts, or was it the other way around?
SPEAKER_01:The theater was an idea. This idea, like that little theater anywhere idea. All this started like 2017-2018. This thing has been in my head for seven years before I I finally did it in April of 2024. So the theater's just about to celebrate two years old when I I was turning, I was 48. I was like, I'm gonna be 50 in two years. I am so sick and tired of telling everybody about the infinite seat theater. I'm so sick and tired of talking about this. I need to know, is this a thing or is it not a thing? And I was like, I'm 48, I won't know by I'm 50. If it doesn't work by the time I'm 50, great, I'll just start investing uh, you know, after that, I'll just be an investor or something like that. And so that that was the really the origins. I had to know, like, is this bigger, is this idea bigger than what I think it is? Right. And and that's why I decided to do it in in 2024.
SPEAKER_06:So, how has it been so far?
SPEAKER_01:It's been a roller coaster, it's still an expensive hockey. We we bring in shows a couple times a month. We have maybe four to five shows a month. My goal is four to five shows a week, along with the shows that I produce, the shows that I sell to the cable company, there's other income streams, but uh you know, I'm trying to find an audience of local people who want to enjoy podcasting as a form of entertainment, and I'm trying to find the talent for the stage. So we're attacking this on two fronts. Right. You know, where do you find all the local talent who wants to leave the comfort of their basement studio and go to a stage and trust me to produce it? Right. And then how do you find the people who want to come watch this? Now we do know that people are going to see live podcasts. We see it with comedians and actors, they're filling up arenas and theaters, but there's no can there's no middle ground between your home studio and Madison Square Garden. What's that stepping stone for most podcasters? How are they going to get out of their home studio and onto big stages at theaters and arenas? Right. Well, they got to practice somewhere, and I think small clubs like this, just like comedy clubs, are the very similar business model. You go from small clubs to bigger clubs, the theaters, the arenas. Why isn't it like that for podcasting? It's just that it's not developed yet. But that same structure is gonna build itself over time because people aren't gonna just keep paying$150 for a 90-minute show with a comedian, right? You know, to see to listen to their podcast. They're gonna start to need opening acts, they're gonna start to put fairs together like Lollapalooza or Vans Warp Tour or Lilith, and they're gonna bring like festivals of podcasters together. And these are things that we've seen in every other industry in music and comedy. We know that that's the business model. We're just not there yet in podcasting, right? And I think what I'm building here, you're gonna see pop up in cities all over the country, and that'll be that middle stepping ground, that'll be that middle point to go from the basement, to go to the small clubs, to go to the theaters as an opening act, and then hopefully you came through that system. One day you'll headline the you know, Madison Square Gardens. Right, right. I love Madison Square Gardens.
SPEAKER_06:How is what your vision is different from like podcast movement, podfest, any of those, those other, you know, podcasting festivals, conferences, networking events?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, those are amazing events, and I've had a chance to speak at some of them. I've I hopefully get to go this year to a couple more, and they're based on very traditional podcasting models and very traditional advertising models, which is great. Like that's that's the foundation that built this industry, and they continue to focus on that. I'm going a little bit further, I think. I think I'm a I'm a little ahead of the curve on what a podcast can be as far as entertainment goes. I think what when people see what this stage can do, whether you're on the stage with a guest or your guest is a virtual guest from another part of the world, and you're all communicating with 40 people in front of you, plus people at home watching, and the people at home watching are sending in questions to the stage, and the stage is answering those questions, and the people in the audience are asking questions. This stage becomes like a portal to the world. You it can be a central hub where you're connected to the not only the people in the room, but people all over the world. They're watching it. I'd say the best way to think of it is like on if you've ever watched Star Trek and they go down to the room and they say, Hey, beam me up, Scotty, or beam me down, Scotty. That room is like a portal to another world. And that's what that's what the stage behind me is. It's a place to go anywhere, to to distribute your message anywhere, to broadcast anywhere. You can do that while you're sitting there and be fully connected to the world in a way that you can't be just watching television or Netflix or streaming. You're actually really connected to everybody else.
SPEAKER_06:But you know, it it's funny. I'm an audio-only podcast, but when I interview, I have video on so that we can connect. And I feel like I'm I'm it I feel like I'm just contradicting myself because I am an audio-only podcast where I can look at my stats and see that, you know, I've I've been listened to in over, you know, 200 countries or territories or whatever. But I I really haven't connected with them. So I I I like I like I said before we even started recording, I love what you're doing to support the creative community and and and not just support them, but help them connect with consumers of their creativity. I I think it's a really, really cool concept.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, one thing that I talk about is and I'm I grew my first podcast, stuff I never knew was audio, and I was doing video too, but I always have an audio version. I always have an MP3 file distributed by an RSS to the readers. That's like my that's not negotiable. Like I still believe in those rules that make things a podcast. But what I do know is when I I put an MP3 file out on a Monday, and then I come back the following Monday, the only thing I know is I had X number of downloads. I'd I don't know who those people were, I don't know how they reacted, I don't know where they laughed in the show, when they laughed in the show. Were they laughing at me? Did they even pay attention or were they on their phone, you know, scrolling the whole time? But when you're in front of the audience, when you're on stage, you're getting real-time reaction, real-time feedback. You're making eye contact. They're seeing how you are in the moment. So all the pictures they have in their head of how they've pictured you, they're now seeing it come to life. They're seeing you in person, how you react in the moment, how you handle stressful questions from the audience, they're getting a new perspective too. And when the hardest part for these events that I host is getting people out of the theater when it's over. Really? Because once the show ends, that that hour and a half they spent on stage performing, it's another hour and a half to get everybody out of the theater. They are high-fiving, hugging, crying, shaking hands. They're saying thank you for what you do. I love this episode. I love this episode you did two months ago. You know, I was having a hard time, but you know, I it got me through some stuff that I'm really glad you produced it, and it meant a lot to me. And I came tonight just to support you, let you know I'm a fan. And that takes hours. Like people do not want to leave. I mean, the host is obviously you know exhilarated from performing. There's there's a great rush you get coming off of the stage, and then you're coming off to the stage to all these people who are fans who love you. And and it the it just that's the it's the most rewarding part for the host. Probably the and the probably the most stressful thing that I have to deal with. But if that's the worst thing I have to deal with, you know, so be it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:So so tell me about some of the great podcast live podcast episodes that that the theater has hosted. What made it such a great experience?
SPEAKER_01:A lot of times we have the best ones are this the rap parties. We've done a several season one wrap-up or season two kickoff, like like those in between are the best because everyone's had a chance to digest the first season, and then they're waiting for the second season, or you know, the second season's kicking off. So a lot of times these middle ones, the the host goes all out. We've had so much catering in this place. They they buy food, they'll buy pizza. They'll we had one guy bring in a full barbecue. He went down, he got like like brisket and ribs and pulled pork. Oh wow. It had a whole spread just to celebrate the you know his podcast and rapping season one. So those shows are are so much fun. That's a party, that's a celebration with the fans. It's a true event to to really be in the moment, to you know, be one with your fans and laugh and and just hang out with them and and put you know, they put a a face to that voice they've been hearing. Right. And you get to have a you get to have an experience that you can't get from an MP3 file.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Well I I would guess, because you're in the Pittsburgh area, that you're hosting local uh Pittsburgh-based podcasts. So that you get the local draw.
SPEAKER_01:We do better with the locals. We've we've tried to book some out of area, and it is very hard. Most, you know, a lot of the podcasts that we're dealing with have maybe a thousand downloads, two thousand downloads. They don't have the draw local. Right. So whenever I bring in somebody from DC or you know, Connecticut, it's really hard to move those tickets because their whole base in Pittsburgh might be 20 people. Yeah. And those of those 20 people, probably two of them would even be eligible or or want to even come to the live event. So, you know, the out-of-towners are harder. The locals are better because they bring friends and family and their local fans and people they talk to and know them, just like just like bands. Like if you were to see a small local band, guess who's in the audience for that small local band?
SPEAKER_03:Friends and family.
SPEAKER_01:Friends and family and local, you know, and local fans. And we're we have a better draw whenever we have more local. I'd I'd like to get to the point when we get some touring, you know, comedians and podcasters and actors pop through. Yeah. I think we're just on the cusp of that. And I think 2026 is going to be an interesting year for taking this to that next level.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, that that's that's awesome. I I see franchise opportunity in your future.
SPEAKER_01:I've had a couple offers already, and it's it's and I I've had offers because one thing that we do very uniquely is there is no middleman. I'm all the men, from the the idea that you have when you approach me to the landing page to selling tickets, to production, to post production, and and to payout. We handle all that. We're a one-stop shop. You don't have to you don't have to involve anybody else. It's just me and the creator. So the some of the things that have come my way is how does that system scale? How does that system become franchisable? That's the franchisable system, is what we built from start to finish. You don't need anybody else. As an independent creator, you could approach us, you know exactly how it works, and we start and we finish, and that's that's the agreement. That's how that's what we work together. You don't need to bring in a manager, a lawyer. Uh, you know, you don't have to get like 10 people reviewing a contract. It's a very simple handshake deal. End of the night, we walk away. If you like it, we'll do it again. If you didn't like it, we're hey, we tried it and we had a good time. And you know, maybe we'll try it again in a year or two.
SPEAKER_06:Well, to get to where you are now, I know it sounds like it was smooth sailing. I'm guessing that you had some challenges. What's been what's been difficult about getting the theater off the ground and and learning what you've learned?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, there are times where I just want to run through a wall. Like, I'm like, I can't believe I did this to myself. Why did I open this thing? And then there's times I'm like, I am the smartest guy in the world. Like, I can't believe I came up with this idea. And then sometimes those contradicting feelings are in the same hour of the same day, or it's the highs and lows. And there are stressful things, like you know, how figuring out how does this even work? Like, how do I get audio to go to a live stream and then get how do I get the audio back from the live stream to go to the house so that the people can hear it? If I if I if you do it the way you think you do it, it just creates a loop in the system and you just you right the you know the the feedback loop that you get and so you know figuring out that technology figuring out I'm very shoestring budget like I am I am bootstrap all the way like I do not spend crazy amounts of money I'll I'll go through a couple like items that some of you may see in the show notes that there's orange chairs in the in the audio in the for in the theater area and I was looking for I want to get nice chairs I want to have a nice space for people to sit and whenever I was looking for them I would go all these remnant places Facebook marketplace I found a Catholic school that was being liquidated it's going up for auction and they said hey whatever you want to donate they had a hundred orange chairs and I was like all right well they said whatever you want to donate it goes to the Catholic charities I said great so in my head I'm like I don't know 100 chairs I've seen what chairs cost if I do two dollars and fifty cents a chair that's really low and they'll get 250 bucks and so I said how about 250 bucks and she said deal like immediately and I was like oh man I could have went I could have did a dollar a chair but I got so I the the 40 chairs that are in the theater cost me 80 90 bucks I bought a stage off of a karate school that was just they never used it they they used to do demonstrations on it so I got a stage from a karate school we have a a place that does Amazon auctions where all those returns go to and I was buying pipe and drape and lighting and other tables fixtures all this stuff and I I really put this whole thing together if you know it's funny if you go to like Spotify at the end of the year they give you your recap you're like here's what you listen to well this service that I use for the Amazon auctions I bought so much the year that I opened a theater that I got a recap like hey your the retail value of all the things you bought was like six thousand dollars you paid seven hundred dollars wow so so I'm very frugal but I want I want it to be nice if you if you see the pictures of the theater it really came together yeah in a way that I I couldn't even like have planned better like it just fit together the right time the right place and those things those things are what make it work I think it the the the building that we found I was like where am I going to put a hundred ugly orange chairs well the building was an old men's clothing store that has red carpeting inside like a movie theater it has the ceilings are painted red the landlord let me paint all the walls black so now you're now it's in the now it feels like you're in a theater the orange works where there's a lot of brown decor so like the orange and the browns and the reds they all kind of work together somehow and it just like I couldn't have planned that but it worked out that way and that's one of those moments like oh I'm such a smartie like this was a I'm a genius to be able to put this together but then sometimes I you know I sit there and I'll I'll have one of my own events and it's tumbleweeds you know so I've done shows where I've just locked the front door and I just hit record and went on stage by myself and and performed and did my show did the recording did the interview or whatever came off the stage hit record turned off the lights and and it went home so so those times are hard. You know it's a bitter pill to swallow sometimes when you're you're trying to do things and you know not every idea resonates with the public but you can go from these highest of highs to lowest of lows and like I said sometimes it happens in the same day.
SPEAKER_06:Right right no I hear I hear you I had again I knew nothing about recording when I started podcasting four or five years ago I think it was 2021 we I and we had been planning since the end of 2020 and then taught ourselves how to record how to edit how to market you know set up our Facebook pages and our Instagram page and you know what I found is everything you think will take X amount of time will take double at least so but eventually you get better at it.
SPEAKER_01:So the whole point in developing the theater is really to support creatives and to support your local community why is supporting creatives a core part of your mission yeah it's a it's a DIY mentality it's that's what I believe in it's what I'm doing right and if I can help other creators the business model is even no risk to the content creators if you were to approach hotel and say hey I want to do my podcast maybe in one of your ballrooms you know what does that look like and oh they said oh great you know here's a contract it's$10,000 deposit it's$5,000 you know for us to turn on the electricity if you want electricity it's another$4,000 if you want any kind of A V. Do you want a stage? That's$2,000 all of a sudden you're at$20 grand to do an event. What I want to do is flip that script I've already made the investment the stage is already set up the theaters already set up everything's in place. I want you to be able to come in off the streets with your idea and hit record and I don't have a contract. I said it's a handshake deal I don't have a minimum guarantee like you do not have to guarantee me a minimum amount of ticket sales. I want you to be on that stage without a worry that at the end of the night you have a bill to cover what we do is we split the door 50-50. So if you sold$500 worth of tickets and your your show you get$250 the house gets$250 and that's it wipe your hands clean that's the event that's all we do. You're not on the hook for you know oh you got the there's a cleaning fee or you know a garbage disposal fee or a worker satisfaction you know they always make up these fees at the hotels so I want to my goal was to reduce that risk to almost nothing make it a positive experience and let that DIY flourish let more creatives come in let more people try to do this let people just see the joy of live podcasting and how much different it is and how much it'll change the trajectory of your show because you're doing something now where you're putting faces to those instead of having just download numbers now these downloads have faces because they're they're downloading the show in real time right in front of you and they're you know their faces are lit up they're laughing right they're crying they're high five in you at the end and you can't do that if you're worried that you've got to pay a hotel 20 grand for the use of their ballroom right right and so my goal was to flip that flip that business model so that creatives can come in worry free and be the independent creators that they are that's awesome. What's been most rewarding about watching creators use the theater and your platform for them it's it's seeing the I love seeing there's two types of people one are like somebody like me I can't plan when I'm going to go on stage I need to have bullet points and I'll just hit those notes as I go through it. The more I try to script things out the more I trip over my words the more I talk myself out of breath sometimes where I'm like yeah absolutely like it and so I for me just going up on stage and talking is no no big deal. Some people are really strict planners and I try to you know get them out of that box a little bit and and I like that they have structure and they're thinking about their show in that way but they're also the most nervous prior.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So what I like to see is I know what they're doing. I know all that I can see that nervous energy when they're pacing through the aisles I you know they're going up on stage or just they're moving like their cup like one inch because like oh the cup doesn't look right there. It's got to be one inch over it that'll be perfect. Then they go they look at it off stage and they're overthinking it. But once the show starts and all that execution or all that planning they put into the execution it all kicks in and they're just on cruise control and they're they're they're everything about them changes. And all of a sudden they don't realize 65 70 minutes just went by and the show's over right like where did what happen what happened? Where did that go? Where did the time go and the the just you never met better people in better moods as when a podcaster gets off the stage for the first time.
SPEAKER_06:What a riot what a riot I wish I was big enough to do that. Because I was thinking if I'm the risk you are big enough I I have you know I have a a very devout fan in Germany that every episode they've listened to. And I you know when I look at my downloads and see where they're coming from I based on when and you know conversations that I've had I can tell who my friends and my family are that have listened to it. And then I'm always amazed that somebody in Singapore listened to the National Santa episode or you know somebody in Cyprus listened to the through hiking the Appalachian Trail episode. So I mean I I I wouldn't think I'd get more than two people in person out in Pittsburgh.
SPEAKER_01:That's what we want that's what we want you we want you to have two people in the audience. And let me tell you there's one thing that people don't think about because a lot of people get hung up on the 40 seats or the virtual seats and and I tell people I'm okay if you sell zero tickets that's not the point of all this the point is to get you started so that maybe next time you will sell two tickets or or six tickets. But what the biggest side effect to all of this is is the moment you say I'm gonna be live on the main stage at the Padootie Podcast Theater on January 16th stop down and see me my podcast headlining the theater all of a sudden the friends and family that you know the friends and family are are supportive and they're usually cordial when you talk about your podcast but they're usually not your biggest fans they're usually not listening to every episode but they'll they'll tell you oh yeah I saw your clip on on Facebook but when you tell them I'm gonna be live on the main stage that that instantly changes their perception of what you're doing they understand what a performance is what a stage is what a theater is what headlining is they're like oh wait a second this is something serious this is this is way bigger than just a podcast whatever a podcast we don't we never know what a podcast is but this is bigger now this is an event this is something I can go to and when you make that transition from just doing every episode in a in in your home studio to maybe one episode a quarter at a live event and in front of people on a stage that changes the whole dynamic of your show it it adds a level of credibility that you don't get from you know downloads and two hundred two downloads in 200 countries but being live on a main stage has as much weight as as saying that huh huh I think I'd be hard pressed to get many friends family to drive from Boston to Pittsburgh. But well they may not make the commute and like I said the the further away the harder it is but you don't have to come to Pittsburgh you know if you ever want to talk about doing something in Boston we can figure it out there's there's coffee shops there's bars there's library spaces that have media centers there's a ton of places to do this in your in your hometown I don't you don't have to just come to Pittsburgh figure out how to do it locally yeah all right interesting that'd be that'll be a conversation outside of the podcast but um it it does it begs the question do you help podcasters solicit folks to fill to to put butts and seats in the theater yeah butts and seats that's I say that all the time I'm just looking for I'm looking for butts and seats and so what I I do put put ad dollars behind every episode I I list things on our local newspaper has an events calendar my Google My Business page has my events on it Facebook events we do Facebook ads we'll do uh Google ads with YouTube we will do we will support that I I mostly spend the 50% that I split with the podcaster on promoting the the event oh wow I I very rarely make like more than 10% on a show. Wow my goal my goal is volume turnover momentum that's what I'm trying to build and I can only do that if if I establish a precedent if I keep these shows going if I keep delivering on good shows and I keep bringing people in over and over and over again I need to get that volume going and that's that's the momentum is the hardest part how do how do you see live podcasting and hybrid events changing in the next few years and evolving and improving I think this is the future without a doubt that this business model for 90% of podcasters is the right model for people to look after or to chase after. Currently I think if you ask most podcasters why they get into podcasting they're like well I'm gonna build an audience I'm gonna get a bunch of downloads and then I'm gonna monetize those downloads by reading by reading ads right and the way ads are sold they're based on every thousand downloads advertisers will pay say$20 for a thousand downloads the problem is when you look at server logs like from Libsyn or Buzz Sprout 90% of podcasts do not get to a thousand downloads. Right. So how on earth are you going to make more than twenty dollars and so I tell people think about how long you've been podcasting how much longer is it gonna take you to get the 1,000 downloads and then if you do you'll need 1000 downloads to even make 200 right so that's a lot that's and that's a thousand downloads an episode per episode yeah per episode so what I tell people is okay 20 bucks per thousand you're chasing this idea and I get it it's been sold to you a thousand times the media talks about how much money there is in podcasting that's what you want to do and I and I get it. And that can be part of your business that your podcast journey over time but what I tell people is let's rethink what we're doing if if chasing that$20 is our goal well if you were to have an event at my theater promote it you talk about it get that credibility from having a live event and you sold just four tickets of ten dollars a ticket that four tickets$40 you get half of that money four people watching you is equal to a thousand people downloading. Right. So my argument for 90% of podcasters let's rethink what we're doing that okay you can build that type of audience but maybe quarterly or once a month do a live event maybe you'll make a hundred two hundred dollars just doing one live event that's gonna at least cover your expenses for six months eight months of your hosting of your website your email marketing you can you can this could be a very fun hobby doesn't have to be super profitable right off the bat but you're building all these assets you're you're getting live experience you're taking photos when you're on stage you're sharing that with social media you you're building something way bigger than just recording these episodes in your basement trying to get to a thousand downloads now you're peppering in live events you're you're peppering in selling merchandise selling ads on the tickets selling ads on the shows you have a sponsor for the show right there's all these other things that you can do to to get to monetization quicker than just I'm gonna read ads I'm gonna read ads I'm gonna purple mattress and me undies here I come look out and blue chew and yeah blue chew which is great like I and I I love that that people are chasing that but I also think like let's be realistic and look at our business model is that a realistic business model for these for everybody to be chasing those top 10% yeah great they're living the dream right 90% of us who love podcasting but aren't gonna make those levels there's got to be another way there's got to be another thing we can do so we don't just get burned out we don't just why are we doing this if we if it's something that's hard to achieve or we may never achieve right or it's a hobby I just keep putting money in I but then again other hobbies I have I don't make money doing them and I put money into them because I enjoy them. Yeah and that's totally fine that and that's that's not your goal isn't to read blue chew ads and purple mattress ads your goal is to have fun make connections and talk to people and that's great some of your other hobbies were you know it's very similar it's something you enjoy it's a if your hobby was ice skating or roller skating you go to the roller rank you 10 20 bucks a night get a hot pretzel go around 50 times and then go home and make skates buy your outfits yeah that's fun and that's okay that's that's what you want to do and you should do that and just like podcasting if you want to do this this is a lot of fun like it's more fun doing this than just about anything else that I do yeah yeah I agree I love this more than anything and I would do this even if I didn't have a theater space if I didn't have the the cable show like this is what I do and that's worth putting my money and time into yeah yeah no I agree I agree I make no money from this I put it's probably my most expensive hobby yeah but I love the people I've met the people I've talked to I just like I said I think everybody has a story and all those stories need to be heard and I love pulling stories from folks I get to connect with on the podcast and I can tell people do listen and people do enjoy it whether it's this specific hobby or topic or it's just hearing people's journeys how did you and that's what I love how did you start what are you doing what's the journey been and where do you see yourself going I think you can learn an awful lot about people and it's always fascinating to hear somebody's story.
SPEAKER_06:I have one last question from you or for you what legacy do you hope PodDuty Live and your podcast leave behind yeah I hope this is the first of of many.
SPEAKER_01:I hope I hope people copy this business model. I I tell people I will show you how to do it. I'll pull back the curtain where my control room is and I will show you all the tools I use I will show you everything because I I really want to see this model pop up in Cleveland or Cincinnati or Baltimore Boston so that Boston so that New York Philadelphia South Carolina I can keep I keep going the Miami and what I wanted is on the maybe on the weekend you have we're hobbyists right you're talking you love podcasting but on the weekend maybe you can go up the Concord I think that's a place named it is uh Boston you could yeah you could do a weekend tour and and hit a couple Spots, do a couple live recordings, and come back home Sunday night and get you know get ready for your week. I really think that there's opportunity to have these little venues peppered all over the place where podcasters can start showing up and start being there for each other and start going to different towns and different cities and performing their show in front of new audiences and building it up from the grassroots. And if you know if I become like the grandfather of you know this DIY podcast movement, I'll be okay with that. If people remember me for this infinite seat theater idea that I was pitching for 10 years, that that's good enough for me. I'm pretty happy with that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, and you know, you shed a whole new light for me. I mean, it and just thinking about, well, how could I, you know, connect with more people? So I'm definitely going to be looking into, you know, maybe doing a weekend tour and and doing some live podcasting. I think it's gonna take a lot of work, but I'm up for the challenge. But the other thing, too, is you know, it it's providing, I want to say, affordable entertainment. That, you know, I'm not spending$200 to go see my favorite band or$175 to see my favorite comedian at, you know, the local casino when they when they blow through town. It really is giving uh consumers of of entertainment an affordable way to connect and and discover new forms of entertainment.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, most shows five, 10 bucks. Yeah, if we get more towards like the education side of shows where they're doing presentations or workshops, and those go up to like 2025. We've had shows higher than that, but I would say most of most of the shows that are entertaining, whether they're you know comedy or music, trivia, those types of things, are five, ten dollar tickets. Yeah. If you have the worst night of your life, you know, being out five bucks in 2026 isn't that bad. But you may find something that you really love, you may find a new form of entertainment, you may find a community of people who think just like you who also like the same show. Now you just made some more friends and it only cost you five, ten bucks.
SPEAKER_06:Right, right. Yeah, awesome. Jeff, if folks want to learn more about PodDuty or your podcasts or more about you and get in touch with you to kind of pick your brain about possibly even doing a live show with you in Pittsburgh, where can I direct folks?
SPEAKER_01:Check out poduty.com, pod uty.com. Padooty, poduty.com. That'll have all of our upcoming events. It'll have the same exact business model doc laid out for you. So you won't think I'm just blowing smoke tonight. I publish everything that I say. I believe that my word is my strongest currency. So if I told you something tonight on the show, I guarantee it's on the website and I stand behind it. You can email me directly, jeff at padooty.com, pody.com.
SPEAKER_06:Jeff, thank you so much for your time. I have so enjoyed connecting with you and learning from you and talking to you. It's been it's been great.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much for having me. This has been a blast.
SPEAKER_06:What do you think about Jeff's infinite seat theater concept? As a podcast creator and an avid podcast listener, I love the concept, especially for us smaller podcast creators. After we recorded, Jeff and I spoke off Mike about different ways I might be able to recreate his concept here in Massachusetts and actually plan for a live assorted conversations recording, which sounds like a lot of fun to me. What I loved about his concept and business model is he's making live podcasting accessible to small creators like myself while filling the affordable entertainment void for the local community. It's a win-win for everyone, and I am so excited to see where this goes and grows. If you're interested in learning more about Jeff, live local podcasting, subscribing to his Paduti in the News podcast, or connecting with him by email, jump down to the show notes for all the links. And while you're there, don't forget to connect with me in Assorted Conversations. Link to my socials and email addie are included there too. Thanks for listening, and if you enjoy the content, please tell a friend about assorted conversations. Word of mouth recommendations are the most popular way folks buy new podcasts to listen to. Another way to contribute to helping me grow assorted conversations is to leave a five-star written review wherever you download your podcast. The written reviews help the podcast conquer the algorithm and get seen by new folks who will enjoy the content too. Again, thanks for listening, and I'll see you in two weeks.
