77 Predictions for Live Streaming & Digital Media in 2021

 

Rob Greenlee

Ross Brand: Let’s get right to Mr. Rob Greenlee. Rob, good to see you. How are you doing?

Rob Greenlee: I’m doing terrific, Ross. Congratulations on five years. It’s exciting to be back. This is quite an event you got, lots of people lined up and ready to provide some entertainment to your viewers here. It’s awesome.

Ross Brand: Yeah, it’s been fun. You’ve got a lot going on between Libsyn and the new professional Podcast Academy. Tell us a little bit about that. A lot of people are starting to talk about it.  You’ve done an amazing job getting some buzz going in the podcast community.

New Podcast Award Show

Rob Greenlee: It’s all about trying to reward and bring attention to the podcasting medium and terrific productions and content that’s being produced. It’s not unlike what’s happened in movies and TV and the music industries around the Academy Awards or the Grammys. That’s what the organization is putting together.

Along with that, building educational initiatives and trying to bring the industry together, create some mentorship relationships between creators and people that are involved in the industry at all levels. So it’s a big effort, but it’s really focused on the content creation side of the industry. It’s exciting to see the whole industry come together to make this happen.

For many years, the podcasting industry was a bunch of stray cats running off in different directions. It’s great to see some co-working together and trying to build something that’s good for the whole industry.

Ross Brand: That’s awesome. Do you have a prediction for 2021?

Rob Greenlee: I’ve been listening to a lot of your guests here and I tend to agree with Brent (Basham) who was on earlier talking about the growth of online video.

Fast-Tracking Technology

I’ve been participating a lot in online virtual conferences and events and COVID has really put us on a fast-forward track around online video and people’s use of technology to get involved in media. I’ve been creating online media for 20 years now, but there’s a lot of people out there that jumped on the bandwagon here over the last six months. And it really accelerated this.

I always had the vision that this online media thing was to going to become something important and I think, unfortunately, it took a tragedy to accelerate that. But we’re on a fast-forward track. Online event experiences that we’re seeing are still kind of rudimentary. They’re still trying to figure it out. And as others have said prior to me, I think it’s ripe for some innovation. There’s going to be a lot of improvement in the online video virtual event experience. It’s still a little clumsy today. I just did the Podcast Movement virtual event and there’s a lot of room for improvement there, but I think that’s going to happen. I’m confident.

I’m seeing a lot of innovation, a lot of new companies really doing great things, but live video is definitely exploding. So was podcasting on a global scale. It’s all on fast forward right now.

As far as on the podcasting side, I see podcasting remaining a free and open medium. That’s probably one of the best mediums for free speech as it continues to support online open standards as opposed to a lot of the other media types that tend to get mostly behind proprietary technology.

Podcast Listener Privacy

But I do think the area of concern as we look to the future in podcasting is around listener privacy. The industry really needs to come together to work on that and to get a handle on that before it gets out of hand. So those my predictions and thoughts.

Ross Brand: I guess it’s a lot of adjusting for vendors who are used to going to events as their primary outreach to podcasters or video creators. And now they have to figure out a way with virtual events. How do we make an impact in the same way when we can’t actually stand around the table and talk to people and shake their hand and give them some merch? It’s going to be an interesting adjustment to see who can create that kind of experience. Or is there a bit different and better way to do that virtually?

Rob Greenlee: As we come out of this and get back to in-person events again, what we learn from the virtual side is going to be applied to the in-person events. We’re going to see more of these events become what they call hybrid events. It means that the things that we have learned on the virtual side will apply to the in-person events and it will grow the capacity of these events to scale on a global basis.

Ross Brand: Thank you so much for being here, Rob. I’m honored that you took the time to join us. Hall of Fame Podcaster, Libsyn VP, and the head of the new Podcast Academy’s governing board. There’s going to be an award ceremony and a lot of different things coming up. If people want to join the Academy, how can they do that?

The Podcast Academy

Rob Greenlee: Well, it’s simple. Go to ThePodcastAcademy.com and fill out the form. It’s about a hundred dollars a year right now to join. We’re also accepting nominations for a podcast to be given an award in March. So if you have a podcast that you feel real proud of, and you would like to submit it to the Academy for consideration of a Podcast Academy award, you can do that right now.

Ross Brand: That’s exciting. A lot to look forward to. Thanks so much again, Rob. Great to see you.

Rob Greenlee: Thanks, Ross.

Rob Greenlee is a Hall of Fame podcaster, chair of The Podcast Academy, co-host of the New Media Show and vice president of content and partnerships at Libsyn, a leading podcast media hosting and distribution service. InsideRadio named him to their list of 2020 Podcast Power Players.

.@RobGreenlee of @Libsyn shares his predictions for Live Streaming & #podcasting in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Chef Daniella Malfitano

Ross Brand: Let’s talk to the great, the amazing Chef Daniella. Thank you so much for being here, Chef D-Malfi.

Chef Daniella Malfitano: Hey, Ross. It’s good to see you. Congrats. This is huge.

Ross Brand: So I imagine you just got done with a show of your own, not too long ago?

Chef Daniella Malfitano: I did. And, because I knew I was coming on, I baked you some mini mummy Halloween cupcakes, because I wanted to celebrate with you. Unfortunately, you won’t get a taste, but I’m going to eat them all on your behalf.

Ross Brand: Well, thank you. That is so nice of you to do that. Yeah, I haven’t eaten in about five hours, but that’s okay. Throw food in my face [laughter]. No, it looks delicious. I love it.

You do such a great show. It’s amazing how you use multiple cameras with StreamYard to really bring us into your kitchen and show us how you make what you make. It’s amazing. It really is. So congratulations on all your success with the show and everything you’ve got going on.

Chef Daniella Malfitano: Thank you so much. Yeah, it’s new for me. I had never done this before this year. So I’m super thrilled to be in this ecosystem with you all now.

Ross Brand: Do you have a prediction for 2021?

Chef Daniella: You asked me the question a couple of weeks ago when you invited me to come on and I started doing a little research. I have three quick predictions. They’re all really good and they make me feel good.

Chef’s Transition to Plant-Based

The first is that the United Nations has declared 2021 as the International Year of Peace and Trust. I love that. When I read that, I was like, “Yes, I’m in it for 2021.” But that’s not all. They also say that in 2021, it’ll be the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development.

As someone who has been a chef for many years and has now transitioned to plant-based, I am all about the creative economy based on sustainable development. This felt so right for me. And then there’s one final prediction, which I think can not be more right, which is 2021 will be the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables. Now that’s something I can definitely get behind.

Ross Brand: Wow. International Year of Fruits and Vegetables. That is eating healthy. Something I need to do more of this year.

But everyone has to check out your show. Tell everybody where they can find it. You go live five days a week. It’s amazing.

Live Streaming That’s Healthy & Fun

Chef Daniella Malfitano: I do five days a week, 12:00 PM Pacific. You can find us on YouTube at Plant-Based Made Easy. That’s the name of our show. Like you just said, Ross, I’m helping people make eating healthy super fun and super easy. Those are my guarantees for watching any episode.

Every day, we make a recipe and it’s super great. We do everything from breakfast to dinners to snacks and even sweets. And it’s amazing. We have a global community now, so I hope that you guys will all join us for any day of the week that you want. Our menu is posted early. If there’s anything that looks good, come and tune in.

Ross Brand: Thank you so much. You’re a superstar. Appreciate having you here.

Chef Daniella Malfitano: Thank you, Ross.

Chef Daniella Malfitano is the author of eight books, a host and producer of Disney California Adventure® Food & Wine Festival, and host of the daily live streaming show, Plant-Based Made Easy.

.@ChefDMalfi shares her predictions for Live Streaming & #healthyeating in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Andrew Kan

Ross Brand: It’s the great Andrew Kan from TubeBuddy. Thank you for your SuperChat. Getting the ball rolling.

Andrew Kan: Thank you, Ross.

Ross Brand: Tell everybody a little bit about Channel Reviews from TubeBuddy.

Andrew Kan: Sure. So we’re doing channel reviews from ChannelReviews.com. Think of it as a progress report for your YouTube channel. Whether you upload traditional videos or you live stream, we’re going to recommend things you should do that YouTube recommends for helping you get served to more people. Basically, it helps you grow your stream or your channel — or why not both?

Ross Brand: That’s what TubeBuddy does. It lets you grow your channel by pinpointing those opportunities. Thank you, Andrew. Let’s get a prediction from you.

Andrew Kan: Sure. I kind of started the train for you here, Ross. So my prediction is Ross will get more SuperChats. The Ross-needs-a-fund is always… No, in all seriousness, my real prediction — although Ross does appreciate SuperChat.

Ross Brand: So contribute more. If you don’t like what I do, and you want to get me off-camera, and not live streaming so much, yeah, just keep contributing. And I promise, once we get to a certain point, I’ll just take a month off and go do something else. Go ahead, Andrew.

New Tools for YouTube & TubeBuddy

Andrew Kan: The more serious prediction Is about what we’re seeing on the YouTube side. YouTube is really enjoying live streams, especially what they’re doing for the platform. As more people watch and get engaged, YouTube has said that we’re going to see more streaming tools to help YouTubers. That’s what we’re excited about at TubeBuddy. We’re going to be helping live streamers even more.

We have some new things coming out that are going to help with when to start streaming and how to optimize and benefit from that. For streamers out there, there may be a dip, but I think it’s more like an arrow where you have to pull back a little before you can really push yourself towards your target.

I’m really excited about live streaming. It’s been doing very well this year. It might take a little dip, but only so that it can go forward even stronger.

Ross Brand: Awesome. I’m looking forward to that.

Andrew Kan is the head of video production at TubeBuddy. He’s the primary force responsible for growing TubeBuddy’s YouTube channel to 500,000 subscribers.

.@AndrewKanFilm of @TubeBuddy shares his predictions for Live Streaming & #YouTube in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Jon Burk: There you go. American Television, Ross.

Ross Brand: That’s outstanding!

Jon Burk: A bit of an inside joke, but anyway, good to see you. Congratulations on your five years. It’s terrific what you’re doing. I love the fact that you’ve got a community like this. So thank you for including me.

Ross Brand: How are you doing?

TV & Digital During the Pandemic

Jon Burk: Good. Actually, this pandemic has been kind of interesting because I report to an office back on the east coast in New York City, but I’ve been working out of my house (in Los Angeles) for over a decade now. So the only two things that were disrupted for me: I can’t go to the gym and I can’t travel. I can’t go to New York. Not much has changed in my world. We’re still doing the same thing. We’re pitching TV shows and we’re working on a lot of productions.

And where I’ve watched a lot of my peers watch their businesses contract, we’ve actually expanded. We’re just cooking. A lot of the shows that we’re working on now have pandemic protocols in place. They’ve almost taken a podcast kind of narrative. The audio track is laid down first.

And really all we need to do is get the crews to go out and do B-roll for the most part. It’s crews of two people, three people. We’ve had to shift and just change up the way that programs are being produced now. This is also what the broadcast and cable outlets and the streamers want. They want these efficiencies to be in place. I’m approaching this from a TV standpoint. We’ve watched all these changes come down and we’ve had to pivot. We’ve had to be nimble and just make all these changes. And because of that, we’ve been very lucky.

Al Roker’s Approach to Live Streaming

Ross Brand: And you and your boss (Al Roker) had gone in very heavily on live streaming early on, and then you pivoted to making that more of an adjunct to the larger production that you were doing and not the centerpiece. Has the pandemic changed this approach?

Jon Burk: And let’s ask him, shall we? [Holds up something that looks like Al Roker]

Ross Brand: Ladies and gentlemen, we couldn’t get Al Roker, but we got the next best thing.

Jon Burk: The Al Roker bookmark. He has 14 books out.

So, live streaming. We went all-in on this with Roker Media back in 2015 to make destination programming for different platforms that were live streaming. The problem was trying to attract brands to it because we didn’t have the vanity metrics. And that’s what brands look at. They’ll look at the numbers of viewers and followers. So we just couldn’t really sustain it.

Direct-to-Consumer Live Streaming

We were very early and now as we look at it, we see the fact, to Terry’s (Terry Johnson) point, there is going to be a revolution when it comes to commerce that’s DTC (direct-to-consumer). These announcements are coming down now, like the deal with TikTok and Shopify, and a couple of other ones as well that are coming down. It’s going to be these influencers and these people who actually have the followings going directly to their fans to bring awareness to products and be that spokesperson, but on their own platform. They don’t have to go onto the brand platform. They can do it themselves.

It’s the model that’s happening in China. That’s really is what it is and it’s just going to move over here to the States. So, that’s going to be big, the whole DTC market. They can do it themselves. But as far as live streaming for us, we see it as part of the suite of production…

Ross Brand: I like how you work the prediction in there and then you come back to answer the question. Get that prediction going while it’s on your mind.

Working in American Television

Jon Burk: I’m sorry, but I have a one o’clock pitch meeting that I have to jump on a Zoom call here, because Ross, I was supposed to be on at 12:10, but I don’t know what happened [he says in a mock snooty voice].

Ross Brand: Clearly you chose what was more important, and that’s why you’re as successful as you are in the world of American Television.

Jon Burk: I got to make money. So please move aside. Move aside, people. Once again, an inside joke.

So the live streaming component of our offerings that we do is exactly that. It’s one of the pieces of a larger multi-platform activation that happens across linear, across social, across websites. There’s also what we refer to as a pop-up with live streaming and it’s to garner excitement. Or if there is a brand that’s involved when we do branded content, this is the part that the brand gets to talk.

But for the most part, it’s not the central point of what we do, but it is definitely a part of the offerings of all the things that we do, including podcasting. We’ve pitched shows now that are not just linear TV shows, but it’s a massive funnel. And wherever we’re making the most amount of money, that’s the bottom of the funnel. A lot of times it is the linear offering, but it could be a digital platform as well.

Ross Brand: Wow. A lot going on. It’s going to be an interesting year, 2021.

Jon Burk: It really is. We get these reports from our agent, the Willam Morris Agency. They tell us what the networks are looking for, what the streamers are looking for. And it’s really interesting to read these because I’ve been reading these for years now, and streaming is where everybody is going towards. We all know that, right? That’s kind of a master of the obvious statement, but watching how these companies internally, especially out here — I live in LA — shift around their executives who were in charge of the linear side of things. Now they’re moving them out the door and digital is taking over these Hollywood institutions.

Demand for Digital Content

It’s really interesting to watch this right now because now we get these reports from our agent that we need content for our broadcast or cable outlet. And it’s not about that anymore. Now they need it for Peacock. Now they need it for all these digital offerings, while the stuff that’s on the broadcast and the cable side needs to be larger than life. So they need something that’s big and explosive, and it’s going to make a lot of noise. You know why? Because they’re losing the battle to streaming. So they need characters that are just not the usual characters and the usual stories. They need stuff that’s really going to garner that water cooler moment, if people have water coolers anymore, but just what’s in the cultural zeitgeist.

Ross Brand: And then they go over to the Plus and they watch more, they watch behind the scenes and they chat with other people, right? They pay for a subscription. Is that the idea with Peacock and all the others: ESPN Plus, HBO…

Jon Burk: Hulu. HBO Max. It’s really interesting because it’s all VOD (video-on-demand) now. Who watches (a TV show) because it comes on at nine o’clock on a Thursday, except for This is Us and sports? That’s about it. For the most part, people watch their stuff on their own time.

Ross Brand: Thank you, Jon. You have a pitch meeting so you better get going, but thank you so much for taking time away from American Television and all the great work you do. Mr. John Burk, Al Roker Entertainment. Thanks so much for being here. It’s great to see you.

Jon Burk: Thanks. You too.

Jon Burk is the director of digital strategy & marketing for Al Roker Entertainment, managing and developing digital content for tv programs and branded entertainment produced by the company.

.@mrjonburk of @AlRokerEnt shares his predictions for Live Streaming and #influencermarketing in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Joie Gharrity

Ross Brand: Joie has been spot on for two to three years, however long she’s been a part of it. She’s been spot on every year. So take it away for 2021.

Joie Gharrity: First, I just want to celebrate you.

Ross Brand: Thank you.

Joie Gharrity: Sending you so much love and appreciation. You’re so supportive and you do this amazing job of spotlighting others. Thank you, Ross, really appreciate you.

More Digital Entrerpeneurs

I’m declaring that 2021 will be the year of digital DIY. What I mean by that is that there are a ton of people out there in the marketplace who have been very resistant to jumping into the digital world, right? And next year, this is going to blow up. They’re going to be looking for endless resources, whether it’s live video, e-books, anything that can help to rock and roll their personal and professional brands out there in the marketplace. And anyone out there like ourselves.

We’ve really put ourselves in great positioning because they’re going to be looking for teachers that have been doing this for a while. We can then share our mastery with them. It can be in standalone products, one-on-one, a group, the membership programs, which Ross and I talk about all the time. I’m digging the membership stuff.

And then finally, what I’m super passionate about as well — I believe that next year will be the beginning of a trend that will start to grow bigger and bigger. We will all have our own online stores that are branded. And that’s where we’re going to be able to cross-pollinate with one another sharing each other’s resources. But also branding ourselves with our own divisions and being able to really expand our brands across our social media platforms and bringing in more and more brand evangelists.

Ross Brand: That’s awesome. It’s going to be an exciting year.

We were discussing how the predictions evolve and where this could go now that we’re doing a show that features the predictions. And you had a brilliant idea. You get all the credit. I was wondering if you wanted to say what you thought should become of this show because obviously, next year won’t be the fifth anniversary. But we want to keep doing this as a broadcast, as well as a blog post. Do you want to? It’s up to you.

Joie Gharrity: Sure. Do you want me to announce it for you? Because that would be an honor.

Ross Brand: It was such a brilliant idea. You get all the credit for it.

Predictions for Live Streaming in 2022: An Award Show?

Joie Gharrity:  Thank you. I’m such a huge fan of these predictions and I get really excited about this every year because I want to see whose predictions are landing at the top, et cetera. So I said, “Ross, turn this into an award show.” Start giving out categories and really giving out the Ross Brand award. You surround yourself with so many influencers. And so that influence will only build on top of building and building. I told him that this could be a major digital component out there, like at the same level as the Webbys. So that was my download. And I’m really excited about it.

Ross Brand: Well, I’m going to do it.

Joie Gharrity: Cool.

Ross Brand: And next year, this is going to be an award show. I thank you for the idea. We’re going to have some events leading up to it. We’re going to have a big to-do and we’re going to put on the tux. Well, maybe not a tux, but you get the idea. It’ll be the digital version, so we’ll probably be in t-shirts or using our webcams or our DSLRs or mirrorless cameras, but it’s going to have kind of a reinvented energy, right? Because some of the old award shows I think are getting a little stale, but doing it digital style, doing it with these great kinds of people who are able to just be spontaneous, get on and share Ideas and think about these ideas. It’s going to be a blast.

Joie Gharrity: Congratulations. I look forward to it.

Ross Brand: Thank you so much. I love the idea.

Joie Gharrity is the founder and brand director at 113 Branding. A former Hollywood entertainment professional, she launched the first multi-media startup business for 
The Walt Disney Company. Joie is the author of The Red Carpet Guide to Visibility and Influence and Be Your Own Superstar.

.@JoieGharrity shares her predictions for Live Streaming & #branding in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Tim McDonald

Tim McDonald: Ross, you don’t look a year over five years old today.

Ross Brand: No, I haven’t aged at all. That’s what happens when you can’t cut your hair for a year.

I knew Tim before live streaming came along because we connected through social media, I think through Mark Babbitt (co-author, A World Gone Social), perhaps…

Tim McDonald: We met at a networking event in New York with Mark Babbitt, actually. What I was going to say was we knew each other before this all started. So I was doing the Community Manager Hangout every Friday on Google Plus at the time and met Ross. And then you launched Livestream Universe. I know in the first year I was one of your guests and it’s just been so amazing to see you continue to grow and turn this into what it is.

In the Days Before Live Streaming

And I love what Todd (Bergin) just said. You have always been so helpful and so willing to help others. Even in the early days when you were first starting, when you were learning from others, you were always giving back to others. Thank you so much, Ross. And even though I’m not doing the My Community Manager anymore, I started this year — when I have great timing in everything I do — I was going to dedicate myself to be a full-time speaker this year. Surprise, nobody is having events.

But as I like to say in The Business of Speaking show that I do, and I interview speakers, and it’s really geared towards people who are thinking about getting started in speaking, who are just starting in speaking. As I like to say, if 2020 hasn’t taught us anything, regardless of where we are in our journey to becoming a speaker, we don’t know bleep because life can throw anything at us at any time. So that’s kind of what I am up to today.

Ross Brand: Well, it’s great to see you, Tim. It’s been a while since we chatted. And I just love how you use social media. When I first started, I was watching you and kind of role modeling a little bit. Of course, I wasn’t on as much you were everywhere. I said, “This guy is making it happen!” I can’t go to any platform without seeing Tim McDonald. He’s always good to everybody he encounters, always has a nice thing to say. It’s great to have you on here now.

Let’s get Tim’s prediction.

Speaking Industry Predictions for 2021

Tim McDonald: Perfect. Well, mine might not sound like it’s all that inspiring or revolutionary, but in the speaking industry, obviously, we’ve seen a lot of things go virtual. I think in 2021 we are going to see a merging of some form of live streaming with some kind of in-person events.

Even though this has been done for years, I think we are going to see it done in a whole new way, because we are seeing speakers start to engage so much more on video. How they do that with a live audience and a virtual audience will be the next key that we will see in 2021. But I just don’t want people to think about the audience being virtual and the speaker in-person, because I’ve actually seen already in Australia a virtual keynote speaker with an in-person audience. So 2021 is going to be an amazing year for merging live streaming and in-person events.

Ross Brand: Where can people find you, Tim, if they’re interested in learning more about your speaking business?

Tim McDonald: Well, just go to Speaking.Business and you can learn more there, or you can connect with me on Twitter at @TAMacDonald. I’m usually Tim A McDonald or Tim McDonald just about everywhere else.

Ross Brand: Awesome. Thank you, Tim. It’s awesome to see you.

Tim McDonald is the founder of The Business of Speaking, enabling change-makers to launch impactful speaking businesses. He founded My Community Manager, a resource for community managers, and served as Director of Community for The Huffington Post, including Huff Post Live. In the two years, Tim worked directly on the No Kid Hungry campaign, Giving Tuesday fundraising increased from $56,000 to over $249,000.

.@tamcdonald shares his predictions for Live Streaming and #virtualevents in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Bee Smith

Bee Smith: We had an ice storm and so I’ve been without power for five days. And so this shows you the power of live stream. I’ve been able to teach my classes even though I have no power. So that is why I am coming to you from my car.

Ross Brand: Oh wow. Oh my… So can I ask where you’re located?

Bee Smith: I am located in Oklahoma City. An ice storm just hit us out of nowhere. The electric cooperatives were not prepared. All around me are falling trees and branches. And so you’ll probably see trucks coming to pick them up and it’s just been a deal. I don’t have my background, but I’m not going to miss out on Ross’s fifth anniversary because it was too important.

No Power, No Problem for Bee

Ross Brand: Thank you so much. This is so awesome of you. And I’m glad you’re safe and hopefully, your family and everybody is getting by. Any idea when things are going to come back on?

Bee Smith: Okay, so this is crazy. People on the north part of the city or the north side of the streets have power. And people on the south side, have no power until next week. So my family may be in this situation for another week. It definitely makes you grateful for things that you take for granted.

Ross Brand: Well, I’m glad you’re okay. And we’d love to get a prediction from you for 2021.

Bee Smith: From my car. Some of my best live streams were in my car!

My prediction for 2021. I’m in the educational realm as well as live stream for mental health and humanitarianism. What I see with live stream and virtual meetings is it’s going to be more than a medium of entertainment. When I first came into this game, it was all about entertainment brands spreading a particular message and selling a product. I’m an author selling my book. And I see it moving more to an operational side. We’re going to see live stream and virtual meetings become a critical part of operations for business, personal and education. On the business side, it’s going to go beyond meetings. With customer service, people want to see your face when you escalate a call.

So I see escalations, I see live video being used there, especially right now with people outside of their homes and losing things. You’re going to see more interaction there. On the personal side, with the pandemic, you see it in a hospital. I lost my grandfather to COVID in March. The last time we saw my grandfather was via live stream, in real-time. We were able to communicate with him when we couldn’t touch him. And people just thought this was about people getting behind the camera.

Live Streaming in Education

As an educator, we would not be doing anything without live stream or virtual meets. We can have private breakout rooms for students and we can put them in groups. We’re going to see that it’s just a critical part of the process. They’re going to have to start bringing people in and it’s going to change the workflow. It’s going to change the qualifications of what makes businesses keep going, families keep in contact with each other, and students keep learning. So that is my prediction. It’s more than a medium for entertainment.

Ross Brand: That’s powerful. And I just see this comment just came in the chat that goes along with what you’re saying. Jay Garrett asked if I could put a list together of all the guests with their preferred connection spots or handles because he said he’s been introduced to some new and interesting people. And so that’s what I love about this.

Live Streaming Connections Include Marriages?

There are people who met today and are going to become friends or contacts or maybe business partners or seek out working with each other, whatever it turns out to be. I don’t think I’ve yet had a marriage come out of one of my shows, but who knows? The longer I stay on, by midnight or four in the morning, maybe by then. You do a long enough live stream and people could connect that way. Who knows? I don’t know.

Bee Smith: Hey, we got a Periscope marriage. I am at the wedding. I don’t care who it is.

Ross Brand: There you go. Thank you so much for hanging in there and for being a part of this, Bee. It’s awesome to see you.

Bee Smith: No, thank you for having me. You’ve done so much. A lot of people don’t understand what we do Ross, but look the time is coming. They’re learning how to use it. And people like you have been an influence and not afraid to promote, like with Livestream Deals.

I just wanted to let you know how appreciative I am of you and how you give us a platform to share for suicide prevention, for education, for my books, whatever the case may be. You’ve done that for me and so many people. Happy five years. You da bomb! I’ll send you that recording, you know, with my little makeup, my little background, but I love being in my car because this is the realness. This is what live stream is all about. It’s the realness and people want that. We don’t want the fake stuff.

Ross Brand: This is perfect. This is perfect. Thank you.

Bee Smith: No, thank you. Thank you.

Ross Brand: That is Bee Smith. She is fantastic. Thank you for being here.

Bee Smith has hosted the weekly live streaming show #BeeInspired since 2015, featuring people who have overcome major obstacles on the road to success. She is the author of #BeeInspired: Practical Steps for Living a Life Full of Joy! and Fabulous New Life Volume II. She’s also a speaker, coach and suicide prevention advocate.

Bee Smith aka @BeeInspiredTalk shares her predictions for Live Streaming in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Dale Roberts

Ross Brand: I’m going to bring in Dale Roberts. Dale, thanks for coming in. It’s so good to have you on.

Dale Roberts: Ross, I’m a superstar. Why didn’t you have the green M&Ms ready? And you had me waiting for over 20 minutes, man. 20 minutes.

Ross Brand: It’s unacceptable. It is absolutely unacceptable.

Dale is super generous. He’s giving away three courses. Three, Three.

Dale Roberts: Three, baby.

Ross Brand: Not one, not two, but three courses. DIY Publishing Course. And that’s lifetime, Dale. You’re not fooling around.

Dale Roberts: That is lifetime. And I don’t have that immediately available. So this is not something I just give away normally. It’s a good occasion. It’s five years.

Ross Brand: Thank you again, Dale. That is an awesome and super generous giveaway.

Dale Roberts: It’s so funny. You would think that after watching all these guests, I would’ve formulated just this amazing prediction, but I’m going to continue to go that back to the well as I’ve done previously and look at the platform that is Twitch. Twitch has continued to just exponentially explode over the last couple of years. I’ve said it, and I’ll say it again. And instead of me saying a prediction of “well, Twitch is going to get big.” It’s definitely already there.

Get it Done, Jeff!

For live streaming, Twitch is the place to be. But what I would like to see is that the algorithm actually works, because they have a search engine and that search engine is garbage. It’s a popularity contest. If you can bring in enough people, then you’ll get more people served to you from Twitch.

Twitch is owned by Amazon. Amazon likes money. I know from all walks of Amazon, they like that. So if they could take that algorithm that they use to service their customer base on Amazon.com and move it over to Twitch, Twitch will grow 100 times faster. That’s what they need to really do. So is that a prediction necessarily? Possibly five years down the way. I would like to see it happening in 2021. Come on, Jeff (Bezos). You’re my boy, right? You haven’t returned my calls lately. You think you’ve been hooking us up? Come on, get that algorithm over there on Twitch, because what you got is complete trash can stuff.

Ross Brand: You put your money where your mouth is. You’ve been doing Twitch. You do your podcast on Twitch, which is really cool. And I enjoy stopping in at Noon Eastern on Mondays. You do that little intro when you talk to the audience and then you record your podcast. So you’re putting in the time there, you’re building your audience. You’re doing good stuff there. So, thank you.

Dale Roberts: Thank you. I appreciate the kudos.

Dale Roberts is a leading online expert in self-publishing. His YouTube channel, Self-Publishing with Dale, has nearly 45,000 subscribers and helps authors publish their own books on a budget. A speaker, author of 40+ titles, podcaster and live streamer, he is the creator of the DIY Publishing Course. Dale is also a brand-building consultant for authors.

.@selfpublishwithDale shares his predictions for Live Streaming and #twitch in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Margie Analise

Ross Brand: We will bring in Margie Annalise. It’s so great to see you. As I said earlier, Margie, it’s been a while and it was just such a thrill to go on that show back in 2016. It was January of 2016 when I was l away and I got this message from Aaron (Kilby): “Hey, would you like to come on our show?” And I was like, wow, somebody wants me to come on their show. And I guess I’ve done a few shows since then.

Margie Analise: Yeah, just a few Ross. Congratulations. Five years is such a long time. It seems like just yesterday that we were on Blab, but honestly, that was so much fun. So much fun.

Ross Brand: It was. And I think we’ve had a little bit of the Blab feel here with so many people on together. Do you have a prediction for 2021?

Live Streaming in Hybrid Programs

Margie Analise: I do. Well, I help female entrepreneurs, coaches and consultants take their business and go online. The main thing I was teaching really all last year before everything crazy happened in the world is that the one thing that people want from you when you put together your program — because I teach them how to do a hybrid program — is they want the human connection.

So what I’m teaching women is how to take a course — that they would just sell without a high-touch feel to it — and use live streaming in it, because people want that human connection more than anything. And I think that’s why we loved Blab so much because we all felt like we were there. We all feel like we’re here right now together, even though we’re not really, but we are virtually. I think that platforms like StreamYard really helped to pull that together. So confession, I haven’t used StreamYard yet, but it’s actually on my list of things to do.

Who’s Zoomin’ Zoom?

My prediction. Number one is I think we’re going to see a surge in independent companies coming up with Zoom-esque-like platforms. There’s really so much potential. So many people are using live streaming now, and taking it away from the cold approach that it’s just a tool I have to use. People are going to start to see it as a way that they can really engage and enjoy. That they can reach people and talk to people they would never have had the opportunity to, like you and I, Ross. It gives us such an opportunity.

People had thought, “Oh, no, I’m not going to do that now.” Not only do they feel like they should, but they want to. And I think that’s the difference. The other prediction is I think we’re going to see an explosion in online entrepreneurs incorporating it into their hybrid programs so that their students can feel like they’re right there with them.

Because more than anything, that’s what people want. Especially since a lot of people have been locked down for a long time and everybody’s going crazy. Can anybody relate? We want to feel that connection with other human beings. And if we can’t do it in person, then this is the next best thing. It just allows for such an awesome opportunity.

And the last thing I wanted to say is — you know what Bee (Smith) said about being able to use it? I think it was her grandfather that passed? One of the last memories that I have of my mom — I hadn’t seen her for a really long time. She was in a nursing home and somebody at the nursing home took out their iPad. And guess what I got to do with my mom? I got to FaceTime with her.

Live Streaming Enables Unforgettable Memories

That memory will be with me all my life. So I think what we’re seeing is how if we can’t be there in person, we can bring that humanness back. We can have those important moments back in our personal lives and also in our businesses. I think we’re going to see such a huge surge in people using it in different ways. People who never would have thought that they would ever use live stream. We’re going to see them not dismiss being in-person because we know that’s the most awesome thing, but (using live streaming) as a really powerful complement to the things that we currently do.

Ross Brand: Wow. That’s powerful. Thank you Margie for that.

Margie Analise: Thanks, Ross.

Ross Brand: Thanks for being here. It’s great to see you.

Margie Analise: Yes. We have to catch up soon. It’s been too long.

Ross Brand: We do. I look forward to it.

Margie Analise helps coaches, course creators and experts grow and scale their online business without overwhelm. My first live streaming guest interview was on a show Margie co-hosted.

.@margieanalise shares her predictions for Live Streaming in 2021. #2021Predictions #H2H #livestreaming Share on X

Steven Greene

Ross Brand: We have Steven Greene. Dr. Greene, let’s get your prediction.

Steven Greene: Well, I’m in the education space. I think you know that Ross, other people may not. I do a ton of online education, tutoring instruction, you name it, and I don’t think we’re going back a hundred percent. The global, national, regional, and local acceptance of virtual education at the school level is there. Not just one-on-one. The door is open. I don’t think we’re going to close it ever, completely. I’ve been teaching online, not full time, but off and on since about 2012-2013 when the technology started to work well enough. It used to be I’d have to convince people you could even do it, that you could actually communicate, work out a math problem, whatever types of things I do commonly.

And that discussion is pretty much a done thing right now. So I think you’re going to see a lot more educational opportunities online. Obviously, people coach online. It’s not a completely new experience.

Acceptance of Live Streaming in Traditional Education

But I’m talking more at the traditional academic level, high school, maybe middle school, college for sure, and I think some of the continuing education things like online MBAs. You’re going to see a lot more because people can now get a lot more access to it. And you’re going to see a combination of live and asynchronous. I don’t even think it’s that bold of a prediction because it’s already happening. What I’m really predicting is that it’s not going to go back to the nonacceptance of it.

Ross Brand: Right. It’s going to be a reality whether we like it or not. And…

Steven Greene: I like it because it helps my business. But I think the technology supports it well enough and the people, the end-users, are open-minded enough to take advantage of it. I think it’s a combination of those things.

Dr. Steven Greene is a podcaster, live streamer and virtual educator at mAke the GrAde. He provides families and students educational support using pods as a virtual learning support system.

.@makethegrade shares his predictions for Live Streaming & #onlinelearning in 2021. #2021Predictions #edtech #livestreaming Share on X

Chetachi Egwu, Ph.D.

Ross Brand: Let’s bring Dr. Tachi in. First of all, happy five years to you and MediaScope. It’s definitely not only been consistent, but it’s always been a high-quality show with so many great conversations. You tackle topics I wouldn’t dare tackle. You make it fun and you get your audience involved. And I always learn a lot about, not only what’s going on with tech, but what people think about what’s going on and other ways to think about it. So, it’s an honor to have you on. Thank you for being here.

Dr. Tachi: It’s an honor to be here. I’m so pleased that you asked me here today. Happy, happy, happy anniversary. You deserve all the success in the world and thank you for being a part of the MediaScope family. So I feel like I’m on a family member’s show.

Ross Brand: Thank you. And I feel the same way. What do you think for 2021?

Dr. Tachi: Oh, here we go. Are you ready? Live scripted. Let me tell you why. So we’re talking about the fall of Quibi, right? Quibi missed the mark and they’re gone. But Zoom also did something really interesting called Zoom Where it Happens, where they had a cast of actors who did live table reads of different shows, where they did 227. The one they did this past Tuesday was A Different World. They did The Golden Girls, all of this kind of re-imagined cast-wise, but it did really, really well.

Live Streaming Dramatic Readings

So I’m thinking that because there’s already a lack of content — we don’t know when we’re fully going to get back to real productions — live scripted seems like the next hurdle to come over. So that’s what I’m predicting. We’re going to see some live scripted.

Ross Brand: And so for the audience, will it be more like hanging back and watching rather than as interactive as a lot of live streams are with guests coming in and out?

Dr. Tachi: That’s an excellent question. If we’re talking kind of reality-like talk shows, I see room for the audience to participate, but if they really want to take it up a level, they need to think live Rocky Horror Picture Show. You know how the audience participates with all those types of things. So it needs to be so well-planned and so well-orchestrated that you can involve the audiences at the end of the day. We all know that the main reason that people watch live streams is that they’re participatory. Otherwise, I can just watch regular static, linear TV. So that’s a great question. I do see them trying to find ways to involve the audience.

Ross Brand: Wow. Looking forward to that. Thank you so much for being a part of it, Dr. Tachi.

Dr. Tachi: Absolutely.

Ross Brand: It’s great to see you.

Dr. Tachi: You too.

Dr. Tachi covers all things media, tech and pop culture as the host of MediaScope, a weekly live streaming show that started in 2015. She co-hosts the TV Channeling podcast.She’s an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland and holds a Ph.D. in communications and culture from Howard University.

.@Tachiada of #MediaScope shares her predictions for Live Streaming in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Brent Basham

Ross Brand: It’s great to see you, Brent. And thank you for the generous giveaway from Poddit. It is an awesome website where you can book guests, really connect with guests for your podcast or your live stream show, or you can put yourself out there to be a guest on shows and promote yourself or your business.

Tell us about the Rockstar plan. You’re giving away two of them. What that’s about and why people should be excited about it?

Brent Basham: First of all, thank you, man. This is great and congrats on your new certificate on herding cats. This is quite a challenge for you. I don’t know how you do it. It’s amazing. But great job all the way through.

With respect to Poddit, it’s a way to connect for podcasters and guests or live streamers with guests. The Rockstar account specifically is on the guest side, because on the podcast side it’s completely free. We don’t charge you for that.

Live Streaming & Podcasting Interviews

The Rockstar account does enables you to have higher visibility and make a better first impression. Those two things are key. And the giveaway today is for that upgrade, for life, forever. It’s pretty high value and we’re continuing to add a lot of new features. So happy to support, absolutely happy to support.

Ross Brand: Brent, what do you see coming up in 2021?

Brent Basham: So I’m a little bit in the podcasting space. I did a show called Digital Dads for a while, but I’m going to leave those predictions to the resident expert, Rob Greenlee, for the podcast side. Piggybacking on what Dr. (Steven) Greene was saying though, for a long time we’ve been predicting on our show before we podfaded, that education was going to really be disrupted by technology.

Education Technology To Catch Up

And it’s really one of the industries that’s really been lagging for a really long time. I’m raising the very first digital natives and I’m the very last of the digital immigrants. It’s an interesting point in time. COVID, unfortunately, is the catalyst, but I think what’s going to happen a lot next year is not just live stream, but a lot of innovation and a lot of companies rushing into the technology space.

What can we do in the education plus technology space? How can we integrate kids in virtual sessions together? How can we do virtual field trips and bring in experts in augmented reality and all these kinds of things inside the classroom and at home?

What’s going to happen down the road for this generation is that it’s going to be very normalized for them to utilize technology in some creative, new ways. It’s going to set the stage, I think, for a whole new level of leaders to leverage technology and not be back on their heels reacting to something like COVID. And how can we be proactive and turn this into something powerful for generations to come? So that’s what I hope. I think we’re going to see that starting next year.

Ross Brand: Wow. That’s a good one. Thank you, Brent. And thanks for a really awesome and generous giveaway.

Brent Basham: Oh, absolutely. Thanks for letting me be part of it.

Brent Basham is the co-founder of Poddit, a website that connects podcast and live video hosts with guests. He hosts the Long Tail Success podcast and runs the Poddit Podcast Guest Interview Facebook group.

.@BrentBash of @getpoddit shares his predictions for Live Streaming, #onlinelearning & #edtech in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

 Dana Bentz

Ross Brand: Let’s bring in Dana Bentz from StreamYard. Dana Bentz is the head of marketing for StreamYard. You’ve got that cool new black t-shirt on. When they asked me what swag I wanted, I said, “That is the t-shirt that I want.”

Dana Bentz: I like this one a little bit better, Ross, because StreamYard is a little bit higher. The other shirt we have — I think we’re coming out with all kinds of different merch. But the other shirt we have is the StreamYard duck. And it’s a little bit lower. So half of it gets cut off when you’re on a live stream show. That’s why I think this one’s the best shirt we’ve got.

Wearing Merch When Live Streaming

Ross Brand: Well, it looks great. I can’t wait to get one of those. And I’m sure a lot of people are looking forward to what StreamYard has to offer. So many great features, so much that we love about it. And it’s been perfect for this show. We’ve got 10 people right now lined up in the studio. No loss of quality, whatsoever.

Dana Bentz: I know. Isn’t that great?  I’m trying to keep track of all the guests you’re having on this show. Ross, I think it’s so fun that you don’t even have a producer back there with you. It’s just all you. Oh my gosh, what crazy, crazy chaos. But you can do it all. You can do it all with one person and you can have 60, 100 guests. How many guests do you have on today?

Ross Brand: It’s supposed to be 82. We’re not going to quite get to 82, but it’s going to be a good number. But no other platform could I do this with, because if it’s a browser-based platform that tries to make it easy, if it’s not StreamYard, the quality will diminish as I bring on more people. And if it’s a high-cost, high learning curve product, it takes too many people. So only StreamYard could make this possible. I do want to mention that we did a giveaway for StreamYard earlier. We gave away a year of the Professional Plan.

Dana, I would love to hear your prediction for the upcoming year, which is 2021.

Dana Bentz: Sure, Ross. Well first off, I think this is so much fun what you’re doing. This live stream party is such a great idea. You’ve connected so many of these people in the live streaming industry, all these live streaming influencers. So It’s so fun to see us all here in one place. And I know some people are meeting for the first time, but we’re all like, but I’ve known you. I follow your live stream shows. Congrats on the fifth anniversary.

My live streaming prediction for next year is a little bit about streaming in general and how I think a lot of people thought live streaming peaked in March and April when everyone started live streaming. Everyone started a new show and then they thought that live streaming would fade out, or it was just a fad that is going to come and go when we all go back to work or all go out of lockdown.

Live Streaming for Churches

But what we’re seeing at least at StreamYard is that it’s still growing. More and more people are still starting their shows. They’re still deciding that live streaming is the best form of content marketing. Live streaming, podcasting, getting your voice out there, getting your message out there. Streaming just makes that easy to do, especially if you use StreamYard, but I think that’s the way 2021 is going to move. It was Rob (Greenlee) who said that when virtual events go back to being in person, he thinks they’re going to be more of hybrid events. I really think that’s going to be so true because we have a lot of churches who started streaming on StreamYard.

And they were like, “Well, we’re back in church now. We’re with masks and sitting six feet away, we’re back in person, but people still want to watch from home.” They still want to go to these events from home. People don’t want to travel anymore. People don’t want to invest all this money.

Live streaming is such a great way to connect with people from all over the world. You have people from all over on this one show in this one span of — who knows how long we’re going to go for — six hours, 12 hours, but it’s just proven to be such a great way to connect. And I think more and more people are realizing that. So even when we go back to being in person with everything, people are still going to live stream.

Ross Brand: This is so much fun. I really am enjoying this. We’re only getting warmed up. I mean, we’re like what three hours and 15 minutes into this.

Dana Bentz: I don’t know you do it, Ross. You are the live streaming expert.

Ross Brand: Well, thank you, Dana. I’m so honored that you came on and thanks for all the great work you’re doing with StreamYard.

Dana Bentz: Thank you. You too, Ross. Thanks for having me on.

Ross Brand: It’s great to see you. Thanks, Dana.

Dana Bentz is the head of marketing at StreamYard, a live streaming studio in your computer or mobile browser that makes it easy to host stable, professional-looking streams. Dana hosts multiple live streaming shows, including StreamYard Spotlight and Two Cents with Bentz.

.@realdanabentz of @streamyardapp shares her predictions for Live Streaming & #StreamYard in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

John Pretto

Ross Brand: John Pretto, 2021. What’s going on?

John Pretto: Hey Ross. How are you, buddy?

Ross Brand: I’m good. Good to see you.

John Pretto: You remember the award show that we did for Blab? We could do something like that, easily.

Ross Brand: Yeah, I remember that. That was a good time, a long time ago.

John Pretto: Six years, right?

Ross Brand: Yeah.

John Pretto: First of all, congratulations. Ross has one of the most important aspects of doing live streaming: Consistency. 2021 is my 25th year in the streaming media business. We started our company in 1996.

Ross Brand: Wow.

Live Streaming OG

John Pretto: And I’m one of the granddads of the streaming media industry.

Ross Brand: Congrats.

John Pretto: And I’m tired. I want to retire now. So Ross can take over.

Ross Brand: Do I get to inherit your gear?

John Pretto: Yeah, right. [Laughter] My prediction is in 2021 Ross will have another prediction show. So, I’m part of the streaming deal from the morning show of Alex Lindsay. On that show, we talk about all things related to audio and video streaming. It’s a great bunch of guys. You can find us on YouTube. And during that time in March, I became part of this guild. We broadcast every morning. We’ve done 220 shows in a row. We haven’t missed one day.

We started a new company called Talent Pros Live. We’re bringing Las Vegas-style production to virtual events. We have singers and musicians and magicians and all kinds of talent and professional hosts. And we can do the full production for you as well. So we can switch the cameras. We help people with professional audio and video and set design, et cetera.

In our experience, Hybrid shows are really difficult to pull off to make them interactive. The big thing you’re going to see in 2021 is the AI (artificial intelligence) implementation of transactional matching of people that are looking for something at a show, which you could never do in a physical world. And the virtual programs are going to become much more effective in that manner. People are going to see the real value in virtual events. I have five more predictions, but that’s fine. I’m happy to see you and thank you so much.

Ross Brand: Thank you, John.

Written Predictions

• By the end of 2021 Zoom’s stock will have fallen 20%. Microsoft will inch closer and closer to Zoom’s functionality with a more feature-rich API. [Since John made this prediction, Zoom’s stock has fallen 30%.]

• Covid vaccines take longer than we think and there is a slow adoption for people to take the first wave of vaccines which slows the return of physical events. In the meantime, virtual events get better and better. They show a better ROI, a wider reach, and are not limited by time and space. The ability to match people at a virtual event becomes much more sophisticated than attending a physical event.

• LiDar on the iPhone and the iPad show promise. The ability to scan an environment and use the LiDar for focusing in low light shows real promise. This sets the stage for AR for Apple.

• 5G Millimeter Wavelength still hasn’t reached mass adoption.

• Additional pressure is placed on the Tech Giants from congress for both Social Media policy and antitrust.

John Pretto is an accomplished, innovative and entrepreneurial technologist with over 20 years of senior management experience in information technology, marketing and operations. He’s the co-founder of TalentPros.LIve bringing Las Vegas-style production to virtual events.

.@human2 shares his predictions for Live Streaming & #Zoom in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Dan Currier

Ross Brand: Dan, I haven’t talked to you since shortly after People of Video. What’s going on with you?

Dan Currier: I took a little time after People of Video to recoup a bit. I’ve obviously still been doing content on Creator Fundamentals. And I actually just put the first post out today for People of Video 2021. We’re going to do it in October of 2021, so still plenty of time. Now after having learned everything we learned, having had to pivot to the virtual event this past year as well as going through all the logistics of planning everything, because we had everything pretty much in place (for the on-site event), it’s going to allow us to just really attack it this year and have a cheat sheet of everything that we need to do to get ready and make it as great as possible.

Ross Brand: That’s awesome.

Opportunities for Video Creators

Dan Currier: I think with every challenge an opportunity is born. What we’re going to see in 2021, as people start to recover from the challenges that 2020 have shown to us, is the importance of income independence and agility to be able to control your own destiny, so to speak, and have the skills to be able to generate your own income, and not be reliant on that nine-to-five job that we were raised to believe was the way that everybody should move through life.

So I think there’s going to be a massive influx in terms of new and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to learn the skills it takes to have that independence and agility. And that provides those of us who are already in the game a great opportunity to be there, to assist them and give them the skills that they need to transition into what I like to call “your personal freedom” to be able to live life on your own terms and certainly be able to weather the next storm when it comes.

Dan Currier helps people grow and monetize YouTube as the host of the Creator Fundamentals YouTube channel with 73,000 subscribers. He is the founder of the People of Video conference, the Northeast’s premier video marketing event for creators.

.@creatorfundies of @peopleofvideo shares his predictions for Live Streaming & #YouTube in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Nicole Sanchez

Ross Brand: We have Nicole here. Good to see you.

Nicole Sanchez: Good to see you.

Ross Brand: Yay or Nay Nicole is the YouTube channel. Tell us a little bit about what you have as a giveaway, not something we typically give away in the tech area, but something I’m sure many of our viewers would be very interested in, very happy to win.

Nicole Sanchez: Thanks, Ross. And again, thank you for being the wonderful person you are and always being such a great resource. I know I’m just echoing what everyone else has said, but you are loved.

Ross Brand: Thank you.

Nicole Sanchez: Just so you know, in my day job, I do marketing for tech companies. I’m obviously a huge live stream evangelist, but I also have a lifestyle channel on YouTube. It’s probably going to be more for the ladies in the group, but I have a big basket of $300 worth of skincare and makeup products. Woohoo. Just throwing something different in the mix because even you guys could probably still powder once in a while. Make yourself look great for those live streams.

Ross Brand: Sounds good.

[Conversation with other guests]

Ross Brand: I’m going to bring Nicole in for her prediction. Yay or Nay Nicole is the YouTube channel. Check it out.

How Corporations Will Use Live Streaming

Nicole Sanchez: My prediction is that big corporations are going to be using live video more and more, and not just for the typical things like events or interviews. They’re going to be using it more for customer service and ways to reach out to their customers because now that with everything going on, we’ve all become so much more socially distanced. I think people want to see someone’s face more often than they can now. So that’s going to be something that’s really, really important.

And also, about a moment ago, Gord (Isman) was talking about the equipment. Same thing here. I bought the latest, greatest webcam. I think I spent $250, $300. Then my father, who’s actually a college professor, all of a sudden he was given one week to have to do everything on video.

And he didn’t know where to start. He couldn’t find a webcam. He was lucky I was able to guide him through it and make it as painless as possible. But there he is almost 80 years old trying to figure out how to do this. So I think it’s from every single level. There’s just going to be more and more video when you look at the statistics, and what they’re projecting out is just growing and growing. Live is going to become a bigger part of that and companies are going to have to get really savvy about where else they can use it to differentiate themselves in the market.

Ross Brand: Awesome. Nicole, you have some links where people can order (skincare and makeup products).

Nicole Sanchez: I have links to all my favorite things. Yes, definitely. And then I also do have a video that talks about how to look good when you are doing video because we’re all doing more and more of those. People have turned their cameras on. They’re being forced to — so I’ve got some tips on that on my channel, too.

Ross Brand: Good stuff. Thank you, Nicole.

Nicole Sanchez is a marketing consultant for tech companies and the host of the Yay or Nay Nicole lifestyle YouTube channel. She pioneered live streaming at Cisco as host and producer of the company’s Facebook Live broadcasts, garnering 230,000 views in the first five days, and trained the marketing team to live stream.

.@nicolemsanchez shares her predictions for Live Streaming in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Chris Krimitsos

Ross Brand: I’m going to bring Chris Krimitsos in. I hope I don’t catch you by surprise. Chris, I know you have a live Zoom meeting coming up. So if you want to go ahead and jump on with your prediction.

Chris Krimitsos: My prediction: Spotify is going to double in size by the end of next year. YouTube is doubling up, like two ads per video. You’re going to see money flooding into the podcasting space.

Integrating Mediums: Podcasting and YouTube

And then you’re going to see a lot of YouTubers starting podcasts and a lot of podcasters crossing over to YouTube. I think it’s easier for YouTubers to start a podcast than podcasters to start a YouTube channel, but you’re going to see a lot of integration.

We’re seeing a lot of that. Streaming is very important, but on the podcasting front, money in the billions is going to wash in, in 2021. We’re seeing it happen now with advertising money.

So in case anyone doesn’t know, we started with like two or three million a few years ago in advertising money. Then it hit 10 million, then 25 million, then 50 million. I think this might be the first billion-dollar year. We’re not sure. And next year will definitely be a multi-billion dollar year.

Ross Brand: Wow. Quick question on Spotify. Do you see Spotify opening up video podcasting to everyone? Or will that stay exclusive to the big names and the people they contract with?

Chris Krimitsos: Do we see them bringing in more big names, you’re saying?

Ross Brand: No, I’m saying do you think that you and I will be able to do video podcasting on Spotify? Or do you think that’ll only be Joe Rogan and people like that?

Chris Krimitsos: No, it’s going to be open to everybody. Amazon (Live) video is something to watch and that’s only for influencers that they approve. That’s going to be big for people. But, as far as Spotify, you have to realize they’re making more money off podcasting than they ever did off of music because you could run ads on those podcasts. There’s a lot of money coming through from that. So I do see us all having access to Spotify.

They’re literally following the YouTube playbook. They’re allowing creators to use copyrighted music now in their podcasts, but it’s only for their subscription service, which I believe they’re testing. And then they’ll roll it out for everybody else.

Ross Brand: Cool. Thank you, Chris.

Written Prediction

We will see a huge influx of podcast ad dollars flooding the marketplace and Spotify adding to its lead as it starts landing advertisers looking for ears via their platform that is modeled after the YouTube playbook.

Chris Krimitsos is the founder of Podfest Expo in Orlando, the world’s second-largest podcasting conference, and the author of Start Ugly. His online Podfest Global Summit in August 2020 set the Guinness Book of World Records title for the largest attendance at a one-week virtual podcast conference with more than 5,000 attendees. He also runs the VidFest conference for video creators.

.@chriskrimitsos of @podfestexpo & #vidfest shares his predictions for #podcasting and #Spotify in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Dan Hughley

Ross Brand: He’s the marketing manager for the United States for Focusrite. They’re the makers of the world’s best-selling audio interface, the Scarlet 2i2. He’s also a podcaster for Focusrite. Dan Hugley, thanks so much for joining us.

Dan Hughley: Hey, thank you for having me. Ross, congratulations on 5 years. That’s incredible. Congratulations.

Ross Brand: Thank you so much. Appreciate the giveaway, that was really cool. You gave away one of the Scarlet 2i2 (audio interfaces).

I want to ask you right away for people who may not be familiar with audio interfaces — because this is something you talk about every day — explain what an audio interface is and why you would want to use one when you are livestreaming, podcasting or creating other types of online audio and video content.

Audio Interfaces 101

Dan Hughley: Sure, basically what an audio interface does is it takes the electric signal that’s coming out of my voice and into a microphone and amplifies it. And it also converts it into a digital form, because our mouth is an analog device, the microphone is an analog device. It converts that to digital to get it into the computer. So it goes from electronics to ones and zeros really quickly.

Then it gets into your computer and you can record onto any platform that you are recording with, whether it’s something like StreamYard — I’m using a Focusrite interface right now to do this, talking through a microphone here. There are a lot of different ones (audio interfaces) out there and we’re the best selling for a reason: They’re really great, very affordable and super easy to use. For podcasters and live streamers, it’s just very easy. It’s not something you have to think too much about. Plug it in and get to work right away.

Ross Brand: Would you like to give a prediction for 2021?

New Audio Technology

Dan Hughley: Podcasting has finally been noticed with Spotify spending close to a billion dollars in the last two years on podcasting-specific acquisitions. That’s huge. We are going to see a lot more professional podcasts and professional live streams. We’re going to see some really cool technology coming in the next year as well from a lot of different manufacturers: microphones, audio interfaces, a lot of different things. We saw that with Shure with their new microphone (Shure MV7), which I’m just itching to try out.

Dan Hughley is the marketing manager for Focusrite, the world’s top-selling brand of audio interfaces. He launched the Focusrite Pro podcast, hosting and producing the first 20 episodes. (Dan delivered his 2021 prediction on an episode of Livestream Deals.)

.@danhughley of @WeAreFocusrite shares his predictions for #podcasting in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Ross Brand: Toni has been waiting so patiently and she’s such a wonderful person. I cannot wait to bring her on. Tony, how are you? It’s been a while.

Toni Henderson-Mayers: It has been a while. It’s so good to see you, Ross. Oh my goodness. Happy anniversary to you. We go way back beyond the five years. You have been always a super rockstar in the streets of livestream. I absolutely love you.

Ross Brand: Thank you. Tell us what you’re doing now. I see you’re doing some acting?

From Theater to TV & Film

Toni Henderson-Mayers: Absolutely. Before I entered the world of live stream, I owned and still own a theater company. The theater company is about 30 years old. So once I got my two sons back up, I went from being in the theater to television and film. That’s what I’m doing now.

Ross Brand: Wow. Congratulations. That’s exciting. If you have a prediction for 2021, I would love to hear it.

Toni Henderson-Mayers: Yeah, absolutely. Before I got into live stream, as I said, I was an entrepreneur and so Wise Courtship, as you see that book in the back — I’m known as Wise Courtship on live stream — that was one of my brands. I began to utilize that platform to produce different brands. As I got out there, I noticed many of the people who started out in live stream with us have developed their brands and businesses or enhanced what they already had.

Live Streaming TV Channels

My prediction is that many of us who started off in this game together will begin to transfer on to television, cable and live stream TV, which is separate channels where people can live stream. I believe that we’re going to start crossing over and you’re going to see shows produced and done by many of you guys. And I’m not just saying that. I believe that. And I also have some channels and I’m definitely going to be reaching out to a lot of you live streamers to do that. I think that’s the next step.

Ross Brand: Wow. I’d love to hear what you’re working on. We have to chat about that.

Toni Henderson-Mayers: Absolutely.

Ross Brand: Thank you so much, Toni. It’s great to see you.

Toni Henderson-Mayers: I’m so glad I could celebrate with you. Take care, Ross.

Written Prediction

Live streamers will begin to merge into channels for a live streaming audience as Netflix or Hulu does. We’ll be able to locate our favorite live streamer among other quality shows and therefore change TV programming as we know it.

is a SAG-AFTRA actor, 30-year owner of the Alphabet Theater Workshop, TV & radio relationship expert and author of multiple books including Wise Courtship: Before Relationship & Marriage Guide. She hosts The Wise Courtship Philosophy Show.

.@WiseCourtship shares her predictions for Live Streaming in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Chris Curran

Ross Brand: Into the center seat, the big seat, the hot seat, comes maybe the finest producer in all of podcasting. Ladies and gentlemen, THE Podcast Engineer, not a podcast engineer, not someone who does podcast engineering. It is podcast engineer Chris Curran.

Chris Curran: Wow. Thank you, Ross Brand. Congrats on five years, bro. You are a true pro. I always appreciate everything you do. You really bring a lot of knowledge to the whole industry.

And I have two quick predictions. I’m going to be quick because I don’t want to hold everything up. So let me know when you want me to give them.

Ross Brand: You can go as soon as you want, but to have a superstar producer like yourself here, if you would like to discuss the weather or microphone technique, we could do a half-hour on that. And if you want to get right to the prediction, that’s all good too.

Chris Curran: Let’s do it. In 2021, more people will take audio quality more seriously, and they really will try to deliver better audio. This literally has been my prediction for the last three years, Ross. And it’s always true because we’re all moving towards better audio.

More Commercials, Please?

My other prediction is that there will be more commercials, which is annoying. I don’t know why on YouTube and everywhere you go now, everyone is monetizing every video and every stream. Anyway, that’s my prediction. More commercials.

Ross Brand: Hey, speaking of monetizing, I now have SuperChat on my channel.

Chris Curran: I don’t mind that stuff, but these ads are killing me, man.

Ross Brand: You’ve got to get that 30 cents from YouTube, right?

Chris Curran: I understand it. But it’s also annoying.

Ross Brand: Yeah. Well, thank you, my friend. I’m so glad to see you, glad you’re here. You’ve been one of my favorite guests over the years and I definitely want to have you back on one of my shows.

Chris Curran: Yeah. And you were on my show, the Podcast Engineering Show, Episode 105.

Ross Brand: Yes!

Chris Curran: So check out the Podcast Engineering Show.

Ross Brand: And I gave you a gift for Episode 100, our most favorite microphone of all time.

Chris Curran: Please, I don’t want to talk about it today, Ross. I don’t.

Ross Brand: We’ll just let it go.

Chris Curran: All right. Thank you, brother. Congrats, Ross Brand. Love you, man.

Ross Brand: Thanks for being here. I appreciate it. That is Chris Curran.

Chris Curran is a professional podcast producer, host of the Podcast Engineering Show and founder of the Podcast Engineering School, preparing students for careers producing and engineering podcast audio at the highest level. He previously worked as an audio engineer in the music business with album credits for artists such as Foreigner, Notorious B.I.G., P Diddy, Itzhak Perlman, Naughty By Nature, Heavy D, Sarah McLachlan, MC Hammer and Ice Cube.

Paddy McGill

Ross Brand: Paddy McGill. Met you when you were with Thinkific. Now you’re on your own doing some amazing stuff. It’s great to see you, my friend.

Paddy McGill: Ross, thanks so much for having me on. It’s a real pleasure and I can’t believe it’s been almost two years since I was on your live show. Let’s not leave it that long, from this one onwards.

Influencer & SaaS Company Partnerships

Ross Brand: It’s great to have you on. Tell us a little about your business and what you’ve been doing since you left.

Paddy McGill: Since I left, I’ve been working with influencers and SaaS companies to figure out ways to leverage partnerships to grow their leads and sales. One of the problems those businesses face is growing consistently. Certainly, if you are starting out and you’re a new company, one of the challenging things is that you have to learn things like SEO and Facebook ads. It can really be daunting. I’m relatively new to entrepreneurship myself. There is always a lot to learn.

What I’m trying to do is help companies to figure out the best ways to partner with people who have access to an audience that they want. I’m actually going to tie this into my live stream prediction. Leveraging live streams is one of the easiest ways to give someone else something of value. So bring them onto your live stream. Let them engage your audience. Let them teach one new thing.

Value of Live Streaming

One piece of value goes a really long way. Rob Balasabas joined with me on the live stream. We’d done that for almost a year, inviting new people on our Thinkific live stream pretty much every week. And it worked out great. We built some amazing relationships from it. Now I’m just showing other people how to do that.

Ross Brand: Yeah, it was fun being on that live stream when you guys were doing that. And you always bring so much value as a guest. So it’s not just what the guest can get from it, but it’s what they give to the audience and give to the host as well.

Paddy McGill: Absolutely.

Ross Brand: Hit us with your prediction for 2021.

Paddy McGill: Here we go. I think this is the year that LinkedIn finally opens up LinkedIn Live to everyone. Fingers crossed, everyone. In preparation for that, I think it’s important for people to identify new audiences and other potential partners.

Tips for New Live Streamers

I don’t want to say get practice, but get comfortable with live streaming because this is going to be the way that people generate awareness, leads and sales going forward. As you know, and from other predictions that have come in, it works with everything. So this is the time to do it. If you haven’t gone live yet, just open up your phone, start talking down the camera and get some practice. It really goes a long way. I was no good on camera when I first started.

Ross Brand: There’s so much going on with live streaming and the different possibilities. Great to see you, Paddy. And it’s awesome to have connected. I’m looking forward to doing more live streams with you and learning more about some of the great brands you’re working with. It’s awesome stuff.

Paddy McGill: Thanks again, Ross. Thanks, everyone. It’s a real pleasure to be here and I see a lot of familiar people in the chat. Jaime (Cohen), Todd (Bergin) and all the others. Hi everyone. It’s been a long time. So I look forward to catching up with you all. Thanks again.

Ross Brand: It’s great to see you, Paddy.

Paddy McGill consults with SaaS companies and digital entrepreneurs around the topics of partnership marketing, affiliate marketing and online courses. He previously served as the head of partnerships and affiliate marketing at Thinkific, running the top-ranked affiliate program in ShareASale‘s education category and 21st-ranked overall out of more than 4,500 affiliate programs on the website. He created and hosted 12 virtual summits.

Paddy McGill shares his predictions for Live Streaming & #linkedinlive in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Jaime Cohen

Ross Brand: I’m going to go to Jaime. First of all, it’s good to see you. It’s been a while. How are you?

Jaime Cohen: I know. It’s been so long. Good to see you too. I’m doing well. How are you?

Ross Brand: Awesome. I’ve got to get a prediction from you for 2021. I know you always come up with something interesting. You always find The Right Words.

Did She Say ‘Celebrity?’ 

Jaime Cohen: Oh my gosh. Stop it. Okay, tell me more. [Laughter] Thank you. I’m just going to go ahead and echo what everyone else has been saying. Congratulations on five years. It’s amazing how many people you’ve brought together and how much good you’ve done. And when I first met you at Social Media Week Lima, I had no idea what a big deal you were. I didn’t know I was meeting a celebrity. I’m really glad to be a part of this

My prediction is a little bit more on the interpersonal side and what I’ve seen this year. And what I think is going to develop into next year is a lot of people doing more of the inner work, and not on the woo side, but being able to communicate more deeply, being able to present themselves in a way that’s interesting because now with a lot of people streaming, with everyone on video, you don’t have those subtle nuances that you have when you’re in person.

Amp It Up

When you’re normally having a conversation, a lot of people might speak in a monotone voice or they might not use a lot of expression on their face, but in order to really amplify the conversation and to get that connection that you would feel in person, you have to be a little bit more amped up on video. So I think we’re going to see a lot of people putting that work in.

On the other side is learning how to navigate difficult conversations. Because again, with the nuances of being in person, you can make a face or makeup a “hum” or a “huh” when someone does something that doesn’t really sit well with you or in a group if something happens that’s uncomfortable.

Now you actually have to deal with it. If you’re on a live stream, you have a big audience and people are looking directly at you. Whereas if you’re in a group, that can be shared among a big group of people. So I think we’ll see a lot of people learning all the things that we should’ve learned when we were young. Learning how to listen more effectively, learning how to ask the right questions and learning how to be supportive of people, even if we don’t share the same opinions and perspectives.

Ross Brand: That’s awesome. That’ll make the world a better place. It’s great to see you. Thanks for coming on, Jamie.

Jaime Cohen: Thanks so much for having me.

Jaime Cohen is the founder, communication coach and advisor at The Right Words. She’s a LinkedIn Learning instructor and the creator of the Connecting with Your Audience Using LinkedIn Video course. She was named one of the Top 75 Influential Voices on LinkedIn.

.@Jaimbalaya of #TheRightWords shares her predictions for Live Streaming and #communication in 2021. #2021Predictions #livestreaming Share on X

Ross Brand: I’m going to bring in Phil Gerbyshack. Mr. Phil, what is your prediction for 2021?

Phil Gerbyshak: Hey Ross. Congrats on five years, buddy. I’m honored to be here.

Ross Brand: Thank you so much.

Live Streaming in 2021: Not All Sunshine & Rainbows

Phil Gerbyshak: So, I’m going to dump some cold water on folks. I think that live streaming is going to reduce in popularity per show, not overall. We’re actually going to see an increase in the number of shows. More people are going to live stream and navel gaze and not produce interesting content because it will be so easy to do. I also think we’re missing a lot more partnerships.

We’re will see a lot more channels. We’re going to see people create content together and distribute together because of the boring just-looking-at-your-belly-button, “Hey, I’m on,” because it’s so easy. It’s going to happen more and more, but the good ones will thrive. So, Ross, the good news is you’re safe, man, but a lot of folks are not. A lot of folks are going to start and die, and the best are going to survive, which is a very good thing.

Ross Brand: Well, thank you so much, Phil. I appreciate the kind words.

Written Prediction

Live-streaming will reduce in popularity per show but increase in frequency as much of the world will have more options to watch, with fewer interesting shows, so the best shows will go live even more while the worst end.

Phil Gerbyshak hosts the Conversations with Phil live stream show, offering straight talk and featuring actionable business insights to increase viewers’ influence, impact and income. He is an advertising specialist focused on LinkedIn ads at B2Linked, a LinkedIn Certified Marketing Partner.

.@philgerb shares his predictions for Live Streaming in 2021. #2021predictions #livestreaming Share on X