The Power of In-Person Connection in Podcasting with Ande Lyons

Do you ever feel isolated behind your laptop screen, treating podcasting as a purely virtual endeavor? Many creators build great digital connections but miss out on the transformative power of a physical community. Podcasting from an isolated home studio can lead to creative stagnation and burnout. In this episode of Podcasting Unlocked, we sit down with veteran podcaster Ande Lyons to discuss her 14-year journey through six different shows. We dive into the profound distinction between virtual networking and the visceral energy of in-person community building. Ande shares how moving past the screen can elevate your show's authority, how to tackle implicit bias like ageism in content creation, and why building an intimate relationship with your listeners is the ultimate key to podcast sustainability. This week, episode 284 of Podcasting Unlocked is about the power of in-person connection in podcasting! 

Ande Lyons is a 4x founder, a former global startup mentor, a serial podcast + livestream host since 2012, and currently the host of Don’t Be Caged By Your Age - an interview-style podcast helping folks thrive after 65. Through "Andelicious" conversations with individuals who have defied societal norms, shattered age-related expectations, and forged new and unexpected pathways that left them feeling enlivened, engaged, and visible, Ande helps listeners reimagine and repurpose their lived experiences for a vibrant life at any age.

In this episode of Podcasting Unlocked, Ande Lyons is sharing the importance of creating community in podcasting and actionable steps you can take right now to combat ageism and confidently defy unfair societal expectations. 

Ande and I also chat about the following: 

• The In-Person Community Imperative: Discover why virtual networking groups can never fully replace the energy, empathy, and creative spark of physical meetups like the New England Podcasters Group.
• The Evolution of a Host: Learn how to successfully navigate a multi-show portfolio over a decade. Ande explains how she pivoted from business-heavy topics like Startup Life to intimate, impact-driven content as her personal goals shifted.
• Breaking the Ageism Barrier: Explore how to confront implicit biases in media and why representation for older demographics creates an incredibly loyal, untapped audience base.
• Fostering Real Listener Intimacy: Understand why deep, emotional resonance with your audience is far more valuable than a high download count when it comes to long-term audience growth and podcast retention.
• Finding Your Collective: Learn how to select a support system—whether it’s a regional meetup or a targeted virtual group like the Feminist Podcasters Collective—to fuel your inspiration when production feels heavy.

Your podcast might be broadcast to the world digitally, but it is built on human relationships. This week, challenge yourself to step away from the desktop. Look for a local creator meetup in your area, or reach out to a nearby podcaster for a simple coffee chat. You might find that the missing piece in your production strategy isn't a better microphone—it's a real-life connection. 

Be sure to tune in to all the episodes to receive tons of practical tips on turning your podcast listeners into leads and to hear even more about the points outlined above. 

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me! And don’t forget to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!

Learn more about Podcasting Unlocked at https://galatimedia.com/podcasting-unlocked/ 

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Transcript

Alesia Galati: 0:00

One thing I love about the podcasting space is how incredible it is to hear people who started podcasts well before I did. Today we have Andy on to talk all about her starting her first podcast in 2012 how she got all the way up to her now sixth podcast, and the importance of in-person community when you are creating something that is virtual, she hosts the New Englanders Podcaster Group, and they meet every month to be in person, as well as some virtual attendees to be able to talk about podcasting and lift each other up. Please join me in welcoming Andy to the podcast. Welcome to Podcasting Unlocked, the show for purpose-driven podcasters. I'm Alesia Galati, founder of Galati Media, and I'm here to share actionable strategies to help you amplify your message and grow your audience. Hello, Andy. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. If you could start with who you are, what you do, and a bit

Ande Lyons: 1:00

about your podcast. Thank you so much for having me, Alesia. And hi listeners, I am Andy Lyons. I'm from Boston, Massachusetts. You'll hear my accent kick in every once in a while. And I am a serial podcaster. I've been podcasting since 2012 and I'm on my sixth podcast, which I launched two years ago, when I came out about my age, and it's called Don't Be Caged by Your Age, and it's a pro-aging interview-style podcast where I interview folks 65 plus who have shattered age-related expectations and stereotypes to help other folks over the age of 65 to find ways that they can do this, where they can fuel their passion, their purpose, and, oh yeah, their pocketbook, because if you've made it to 65 you've got another 20 years probably in the tank. What are you going to do with them? And we want to stay alive and connected. As I often say, Alesia, don't shrink with age, take center stage.

Alesia Galati: 2:10

I love that so much. Yeah, there's something about podcasting I feel like once you get bit by the podcast bug, you want to continue podcasting. There's so many, like, oh, I have this interest, I can make a podcast about this, I have this interest, let's make a podcast about this. What was that first podcast like, especially thinking about 2012 I started guesting in 2016 and I feel like even then, so much had changed in podcasting and I first started listening to podcasts in 2014 so there were still very few podcasts, but it skyrocketed from there. So 2012 what was that experience like?

Ande Lyons: 2:53

First of all, just let everybody know I've been unemployable since 1992 I am an entrepreneur, and I've had a tech company.com I've had a food manufacturing business, etc. But in 2011 I was looking around, trying to think about what it was I going to do next, and I knew from my own personal experience, having been with my darling man for decades, that many couples were tuning out in the intimacy department. So I created a platform, if you can believe it, called Bring Back Desire to help women get out of their head and back into bed, to increase for long-term couples to have increased intimacy, and a heck of a lot of fun, and so to that end I saw podcasting as a way to increase not only the brand awareness but to interview people, from sex burst to relationship experts to erotic romance writers. Oh my gosh, I had so much fun. I have to tell you, a lot of folks my age, and listen, I'm 69 today. A lot of women, especially I come live in proper Boston area, were like, oh my gosh, what are you doing? Your career is going to be ruined. And I actually had one woman say to me, Andy, what does your husband think about what you're doing? And I said, he loves them when I bring my work home. So I say that because I knew I wanted to do this, but I have to tell you, I knew nothing about podcasting, so I did get myself a producer, and a lot of times we had people who were transitioning from radio into podcast production at the time, so I went with this wonderful woman, and she really held my hand for the first 52 weeks, because it was scary, and I would bring on two guests per episode, and really dive into some salacious topics, but I loved it, and by the time those 52 weeks were up, I was launched. I went on my own to what was it Blog Talk Radio back then, and then I had continued with that, but I changed the name, and then I. Started talking about other things, and then in 2014 I was getting so tired of watching horrible advice being given online from people launching businesses. I just had, I've got to stop this. I need to go help newbie founders, because they're blowing it, they're not asking the right questions, they're not getting the right advice, and that's when I started focusing on startups, startup founders, and startup life.

Alesia Galati: 5:26

Nice. Wow, yeah, there's something interesting about when you have podcasts that are a little more explicit in the content that it can be hard to grow the audience, it can be hard to have to almost prove yourself, of like, I know what I'm talking about. I'm not just here to titillate you. No, we're having deep conversations, and I think that's so important. I'm also curious, what growing that audience was like then, because I think about at that time, I don't even think Google Podcast, and again it was Google Play

Ande Lyons: 6:07

Muses, Google Plus,

Alesia Galati: 6:08

or Google Plus was the one that you're watching at that time.

Ande Lyons: 6:11

Yeah, I used for I used this person's recording platform. Okay, so whatever she.. it was her network, so to speak, that we recorded on, then she took it and took care of it. So, when I moved to Blog Talk Radio, I had to learn how to edit, and so I put it into Audacity often. Love to do that, but I want to say it at the same time I was also doing live streams on Google Plus.

Alesia Galati: 6:40

Wow, which

Ande Lyons: 6:41

I'm telling you, this was the Wild West

Alesia Galati: 6:43

days,

Ande Lyons: 6:44

because you could not count on technology, you could, I would just be howling over some of the things that would go wrong, and I would have panels, I wouldn't just interview one person, I would have three or four people, and it was a lot of fun, it was a really fun community of folks who were audacious enough to go live, and we all have great memories, and we run into each other, but building the audience, you, it was easier to do that on Google Plus, and I also used Twitter, Twitter was phenomenal, and then Facebook, so those were the places I was hanging out to build the audience, and it nicely, because I did a lot of leading posts and things like that to titillate people's thoughts about this, because I really was at the end of the day helping to lower the divorce rate, basically, because what happens to so many parents, they get really good at raising those kids together, but they become parallel partners, or folks become roommates, and what happens is when you stop addressing that side of life, affairs can start happening, and people can start disconnecting, but it's not a topic people want to talk about. And I gave a lot of thought. Do I do a non-deploy? Do I do a.. now I'm going to come as the girl next door and talk about these things as a mom of children and menopause, going through perimenopause and things like that, and how do we keep our intimacy with our beloved? It was a fascinating time, and yeah, the podcasts, I was really happy when Buzz Prep came along. I love that platform, I love the founders of it, and it just is so user friendly, and now we have Podpage, which you can go and have a whole website for your podcast. You can have its own place. I gotta tell you, life is easy now, and that's why I'm always suggesting to folks you have a creative outlet. Do podcasting is so wonderful way to, as you said, manage your curiosity on things, and it's so low overhead. You're going to invest in a camera and in your microphone one-time costs, and after that, it's maybe if you really go wild between Riverside and Buzz Sprout, and some other things, Podpage, maybe $50 a month, you know, a night out to dinner, not even that, that's takeout

Alesia Galati: 9:02

right at this point. Good Lord, it's so expensive. Oh, I love that so much. So now I'm curious, what was that kind of transition you said? Now you're on your sixth podcast. What was that evolution for you to then get to this point?

Ande Lyons: 9:17

Thank you. I had a wonderful podcast called Startup Life, and I was about 3840 episodes in when Covid hit, and at the same time I was also, I had a monthly pitch event for startup founders in Boston for raising capital. It was a great live event, and I thought, as an extrovert, what the heck am I going to do? So I thought, I can go live now. We have a platform called Stream Yard. I had been watching those guys, and I was part of their beta team in 2018 They launched in 2019 and so I said, okay, I'll go live, and that's when I started the Startup Life Live show, and twice a week I interviewed live across LinkedIn, and you. Tube and Twitter and Facebook and all the places, everybody, anyway. And that was fascinating. And I say that because Alesia, we're recording right now. You're gonna be able to take this and edit, and it's going to be wonderful when you go live. There's no editing. You have to be in your seat, present, using every improv skill you never knew you had to manage whatever happens. Plus, I'm going to add the fact that you've got people watching who are commenting, and you can pull those comments up on the screen. You're really lighting your brain on fire, and actually you're showing off, because doing all that as a host and managing the conversation, taking everybody out of story arc, I did that for three years, twice a week, and it was wonderful. But around June of 2023 I decided I needed to move out of the startup ecosystem. That's really like hanging out with toddlers, it's all about them, which is how it needs to be. They have to be about their business, but I really wanted more reciprocity in my life, and it was such a youth-centered area, arena, industry, landscape. I was always afraid to tell everybody my real age. They all assumed I was in my early 50s, and I was actually hitting my mid 60s. So, when I turned 66 Alesia, I came out, grabbed a the root us 66 here I'm going to bring it right here and show you the route 66 sign and held it up in front of me and took a photo and did a post called Don't be caged by your age, and I talked about ageism in the tech industry, I talked about ageism that I saw all the time, assuming how to pitch your business as if you were telling your grandma, and I'd be like,"Excuse me, folks, we have been in tech since the 70s, we are very tech savvy, not tech challenged, and I finally knew that this was where I wanted to be, and that post went viral on LinkedIn, and the comments from folks who were just in tears over what had happened after they turned 55 in their corporation, as if ambition died, to folks who had figured it out, right, they had gone on to do so many remarkable things, so I knew I wanted to do that podcast, but I needed to do a palate cleanser first, so I did a 30 episode podcast called Your Ink Story, and I interviewed people about the stories behind their tattoos.

Alesia Galati: 12:33

Although that is, and as someone who has several, that is fun.

Ande Lyons: 12:39

I don't have any, but I always ask people, tell me your ink story, because I'm fascinated, but more importantly, I wanted to have conversations about what we have in common as humans, and everyone tattoos are all about the human journey and experience, even if someone said, I don't care, I just put that there's behind that tattoo, and that was a lot of fun, and then in March of 2024 I launched Don't Be Caged by Your Age, I'm 92 episodes in, and it is such an important thing, especially for women to help folks age out loud and proud, just say your name to it's like when to me the fastest way to dissolve and dismantle ageism is to be out in the world, intergenerational relationships, teams, intergenerational teams in the corporate space, and show younger generations what they have to look forward to versus be afraid of.

Alesia Galati: 13:36

Yeah, it's so important. We, I was telling you before we hit record, we have a few clients that talk about that midlife space, and I'll be 35 this year, so I haven't hit that just yet, even though most people are like, are you sure you're 35 and I'm like, yes, yes, I am, but it's really interesting learning what I have to look forward to, but also understanding how to advocate for myself, whether that's in conversation with other people or at the doctor, right, understanding that and learning from the women who have gone before me and maybe struggled before me, and how to come out on the other side without having to go through those struggles. I think is so fascinating. So, I love that you have that podcast. You also have created an.. and it sounds like, as an extrovert, you're like, I need everybody to come along with me. I'm an introvert, so the idea of that is like, no, thank you, I'll be in my house cheering you on. But you have a community, the New England Podcasters community, and as someone who I was born and raised in Syracuse, New York, so New England, shout out. Yes. What was that launching that like? Why was that important for you to create community for other podcasters in a more physical space?

Ande Lyons: 15:38

Anyone who's over 60 will tell you it's really hard to make new friends for a couple of reasons, people. Moved away, you get more discerning about who you want to hang out with when you're younger parent groups, or when you were in college, you were thrown together with people. When you get older, you're like, I only have so much time left, and you are not someone I'm going to spend that time with. But I looked on Meetup and Eventbrite to see what was going on, and I was like, no, not interested in that, and I thought, Andy, who do you love hanging out with the most? Indie podcasters, and having been online for 15 years at this point, I was like, I need in person, I just need local community, and especially with what's going on in our country right now, we need to see each other, and especially what's going on with AI. We need to see each other and look into each other's eyes, and so I put out a feeler in March of 2024 to a few folks that I knew locally and said, "Come on Zoom with me, I want to talk to you about something. So I gathered about 13 folks, and I said, "I'm thinking of launching this monthly meetup, and I knew from having had my monthly startup event that you choose a day and a time and you're there every month at that same day and time, it builds consistency, it helps people really log into where they can be if they want to be, Andy will always be there doing this, and I said, anybody have interest, and they were like jazz hands, right, and one person said, and have I got the best location for you? Because that's the second most important thing you have to find out, is this something people want, and who's going to host you for free? And so it was a cable access TV location, right off a major highway that many folks easily can come to from Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts, and Vermont, and it was a beautiful facility, TV studio, podcast studio, plenty of packing to pack a cars, and oh my gosh, for two years every second Saturday of the month at 12 noon we gather, and it's evolved as I learned how to be a better facilitator, because it's one thing when you set up a monthly event for startup founders, because you have a pitch event, it's very choreographed, it's specific for their needs, this is different. This is networking. Do we do featured speakers? It was important to me to have a huddle every month. In fact, I handed out clappers from day one, just to help people feel a little silly and help remove the mask that we have. And now, because we've grown and we're more like 25 to 30 folks attending every month, I break it down into groups of five or six, so they can get really rich connection and talk about their challenges, their wins, and their rut rows. But honestly, out of all the things I've ever done, this has been one of the most rewarding things. And so, not only did I get a hosting facility, which is free, we show up, they turn on the lights, they pay for heat and electricity and AC. I also immediately got a food sponsor, nice, from one of our wonderful podcast brands out there called MoPod, and oh my gosh, for two years they've been, they send me money for all our food, they fuel our events, and then I was like five months into it, and one of our attendees, who's been building websites since 1998 Jenny Bellinger, she came up to me and she said, How about I build a website for us? I like, okay. And then I was about a year into it, so it was this time last year really was January of 2025 Practically, with her toe tapping to me, she says, Andy, when are you going to start the membership? I'm like, say what, but she was absolutely right. In order to have longevity and sustainability, you have to fund these things. So I launched the membership program. I said, anybody who comes in by may 31 will be considered a founding member. You'll be locked in at 100 bucks a year for life, and a whole bunch of people signed up, so that was great, nice. But then I got tired. I'm going to keep going here for just a second. I got tired of chasing everybody, because some people aren't on Facebook, some people aren't on IG, some are only on LinkedIn. Some are never on. How do you stay on top of everybody without getting exhausted? So I looked into a platform that would be great for community, and I landed on circle.so and I created an online community pod garden, nice members only, and so there people can stay in touch, it's very garden themed, so I'm the garden steward, but everybody has agency to grow and glow, and we do a lot of garden theme content, which is fun. We have a greenhouse every month where we get together and talk about stuff, but we have featured guests, like you'd be great to come in and be a featured guest sometime and share your knowledge. Knowledge and just as a way for us to find each other and stay in touch during the months, and so I'm very proud of that as well.

Alesia Galati: 20:53

Oh, that's so interesting. I'm curious, two

things: 20:55

the variety of the types of shows that have been part of this community, I'm really curious about that, because being in the entrepreneurial space or the startup space, we tend to attract those types of people, but I'm always fascinated, like, especially now that I have my hobby podcast, where I talk about romance books, the community in that space, right? There's so many podcasts about romance novels, and meeting all of them has been really interesting, so I'm curious, what kinds of podcasts this community has attracted, and then I'm also curious if you have found whether having this community has helped with pod fade for your members, if it's helped them pod fade for the uninitiated, being that typically when people have a podcast, they stop because of how much effort, time, energy goes into it, and which we get it is a lot of effort and energy to show up regularly for people, and so I'm curious about those two things.

Ande Lyons: 21:59

Oh my gosh, I'm fascinated. Listeners, indie podcasters are often pursuing their passions. Yes, a lot of them are using it for brand awareness and funnel for a small business that they have, or a solopreneur service-based business they have. But many are pursuing a passion. So, we have one on paranormal,

Alesia Galati: 22:19

nice.

Ande Lyons: 22:19

We have one called I Wish I Were Prosciutto. It's all about Italian cooking.

Alesia Galati: 22:25

That's all good.

Ande Lyons: 22:27

We have the mental health ones, right, that are so much fun. We have folks talking about all different aspects of life. It just fascinates me, but they're on the same trajectory, which is, how do I create meaningful content that people will want to listen to? How am I meeting my audience's needs? What does that look like, and how do I do things to find that audience? But we also focus on, and this is so important, the fact that there's so much shame around, oh, I only had 20 downloads, or I only had 50 downloads. We are there to also remind folks at every level, it's never about the download number, it's about who's listening. And secondly, if you filled it up, if you stood in front of 20 people and talked every single week, you'd be like, "My gosh, that's a lot of people, right? It really is. You need to feel really good about that. Yeah, and finally, it takes the pressure off, because all of a sudden they see that they're with others who are struggling with all the different aspects of this journey, because they can talk to family and friends about their podcast, and everybody's like, "Oh, that's nice,

Alesia Galati: 23:41

right, they don't understand,

Ande Lyons: 23:44

and so we lift each other up, and then that's why we bring in the featured speakers, because sometimes maybe you're not tapping into your authority, your voice, you're using someone else's voice, or you're, you're behaving, or bringing a different version of yourself that you think you're supposed to, not understanding that folks want you, and as Seth Godin always said, sure, it's been done before, but not by you and not for us. And so, understanding that in community, and that's why we have our wins and our rut rows, and because you know, ghosted by a guest or the technology, and you got done, you realized you hadn't properly hit record. I put a great

Alesia Galati: 24:27

interview to a client last week. I was like, I am so sorry to inform you, there is no sound in this video at all. She was like, no,

Ande Lyons: 24:40

but I'm always fascinated by the different podcast types, you know, from travel to. it's just so fascinating, and we just love that uplifting part. And so, whether in person or when we have our monthly virtual gathering, because we do bring people in that aren't from New England, because they see what we're doing, like what's right. You can join us virtually, but we can sit there and shed a tear or two over the fact you put in that much time, or because one of our podcast community members said, yeah, my other full-time job for this hobby, so it's hard, but when you get around, people understand, you find that what you're feeling like you're empty, you get filled up by the community because they sincerely understand, and podcasters love to help lift, uplift other podcasters.

Alesia Galati: 25:33

Yeah, because we understand that a podcast listener is not listening to one podcast, right? It's just like movies, you're not going to be an actor and be like, no, you're only allowed to go watch my movies. Like, no, there's tons of other movies, and by the person watching other movies, they're going to be interested in your future work. There is no competition here, and, like, you said, what I bring to the even in the podcasting space, right, there's so many different podcasts on podcasting, and there's also room for me, because how I approach it is going to be different, even how I approached it. If anyone listens to, like, the initial episodes, I was very rigid about this. Is what you need to do to have a successful podcast. Now I'm like, everyone gets to decide what success looks like to them. Completely different energy from previous to now. We're like, hey, you want to do a limited series, go ahead, whereas maybe episode 20, I was like, you're not allowed to stop podcasting. Completely different, we evolve, we change, we grow, and so I think that it's so important that we are in community with other people. If you're an introvert like me, find a group, find a collective something that is aligned values that you feel supported personally. I'm in the Feminist Podcasters Collective. Absolutely love what Becky has done over there, all virtual, so we've got people in Europe, we've got people in Costa Rica, like all over the place, but I think there is something so powerful for people who do want to be in person, and so, if you are in the New England area, definitely check out what Andy's got. Where can people find you? Listen to your podcast and connect with the community as well, especially if they're local to you.

Ande Lyons: 27:16

Oh my gosh, and thank you for that shout out for New England Podcasters Group. Go to New England Podcasters dot group, you'll learn all about us, and if you want to find ways to explore the chapter we like to call the Renaissance years, the 65 plus chapter, please tune into Don't Be Caged by Your Age. You can find it wherever you tune into podcasts or visit Don't Be Caged by Your age.com and be sure to connect with me online, Andy Lyons. I'm everywhere,

Alesia Galati: 27:49

awesome. And we'll have links for all that in the show notes and the YouTube description for anyone doing other things as they're listening to us. We've got you for those links. Andy, thank you so much for being on the show. This was an absolute blast.

Ande Lyons: 28:02

Thank you so much for this delicious conversation, and I'm cheering wildly for all you podcasters out there, you've got this, you glow,

Unknown: 28:10

you.