Marketing Happy Hour - Why Video Builds Trust Faster Than Any Other Marketing Channel | Kendall Breitman of Riverside

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

In this episode, we’re joined by Kendall Breitman, Community Lead at Riverside.fm, to unpack what it really takes to build meaningful community in a noisy, content-saturated world. A former reporter turned community builder, Kendall shares why trust has to come before tactics, why video is one of the most powerful tools for connection when used with intention, and how brands and creators can stop chasing reach and start building relationships that actually last. Whether you’re creating content, leading a brand, or thinking about community in 2026 and beyond, this conversation will challenge how you think about growth, visibility, and showing up online.Key Takeaways:// Community starts with trust, not platforms or tactics — strategy comes before tools.// Video works when it’s human, not overproduced or performance-driven.// Connection requires intention — reach alone doesn’t build loyalty.// Brands earn trust by showing up consistently, transparently, and with real value.Connect with Kendall: LinkedInLearn more about Riverside: Website____Join the MHH Collective! The MHH Collective is a community for marketers and business owners to connect, ask real questions, and grow their careers together. Join for access to live Q&As with industry experts, a private Slack community, and ongoing resources: https://www.marketinghappyhr.com/mhh-collectiveSay hi! DM us on Instagram and let us know what content you want to hear on the show - We can't wait to hear from you! Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. ⁠Join the MHH Collective: ⁠Join now⁠Get the latest marketing trends, open jobs and MHH updates, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our email list!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

I think that what you really need to do is rethink video. When we as marketers think about video, you're thinking about UGC or you're thinking about yourself getting in front of the camera and being like, hi, this is the new feature update or whatever that is. We just did user calls. Half of that was to get to know them. But also, like, why not use those kinds of calls, those kind of testimonials, with their permission, of course, to record that content, to have real users speaking on video to you about what they love about your platform. how that helped them get to their goals. And that's content.

I think that all of that kind of stuff helps build trust for you. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour, a weekly podcast helping marketing professionals and entrepreneurs build better strategies and hit career goals. I'm Cassie and I'm Allie. We're marketers and your host through these unfiltered convos with your peers and experts in the space. Let's dive in. Grab your favorite drink and let's get to this week's episode.

We're very excited. We have Kendall Brightman of Riverside. on the show, which we're currently using Riverside and have since we started this video adventure with Marketing Happy Hour to record the show. So stoked to hear more about Kendall's journey and just learn about Riverside confidence on video. How do you show up for your community in the best way possible? But with that, Kendall, welcome to the show. Excited to have you. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be talking with you both. Yes, absolutely. Well, we're going to dive into it here in a minute, but have to ask you what has been in your glass lately? Anything fun that you've

been enjoying? I mean, if like coffee that's truly not strong enough ever is fun, then that. But I just, yeah, it's mostly been coffee and water. I've been on like this new kick of trying to drink more water in 2026. Yeah, the influencers on TikTok have been telling me that that's, that's a thing I should do. And so I've bought in. I'm influenced. I'm on my water kick. Yes. Me too. too. Always keeping the Stanley full is key. Sometimes I'll forget to drink water in a day and I realize it's because I just didn't have my Stanley in front of me. So that is the new habit. I have to instill. We love it. We love to stay hydrated. Well, Kendall, if you don't mind, tell us a little bit about yourself and also Riverside for those who don't know who are not in the

podcast or video streaming space. Let us know a little bit more about the platform too if you don't mind. Yeah, of course. I do love that you call it a video adventure when you were first doing that intro because it like it truly is adventure to really start video. So, but we'll be talking all about that. So yeah, I'm Kendall. I'm the community lead at Riverside. So Riverside's a video content creation platform. So recording, editing, transcribing, making clips really lets you create the content that you are needing to create end to end. We also added hosting for podcasts. So. Yeah, that's a little bit about Riverside. Our whole thing is that when you record, it's recorded in HD, high quality. And then we have a lot of things on the back end that can help you edit, AI clips. So there is just a lot really to work with if you're creating video. And well, I know that we're going to get to that. But a little bit about me.

My background's actually in journalism. And I started as a journalist. I was working as a political reporter for NBC and Bloomberg. and then kind of shifted away over to marketing, which is a total journalism cliche that everybody always leaves for marketing or PR. And I am part of the marketing train was content writing for a little while and then moved over to community management. And that's kind of, that's where I find myself now. So I'm leading Riverside's community of thousands of creators. So those are podcasters, YouTubers, marketers, just anyone who's really creating video content.

and I love it. It's a really fun job within marketing to do community. Yeah, we, I'm excited to learn from you personally. And I know we'll personally get a lot out of this conversation. We just launched our first community, which we're very excited about. So I'm excited to hear your tips. But I am just curious, you know, you mentioned that shift from journalism to marketing. What inspired that shift? What kind of pulled you in that direction? because we have a lot of people that are listening that are thinking about making a pivot and they're not sure how, or they feel like some of their past experience maybe doesn't necessarily prompt a shift. So just would love to hear your encouragement around making such a shift.

Yeah, I think that people are really surprised about that shift. But then when I really explain, like, kind of where my head was at, it really makes sense. So originally the shift was because I made a move. And so I could no longer work in D.C. in political journalism. So you kind of have to be there to be reporting on it. And so then I kind of pivoted into marketing. And at first, I was like, okay, I am a journalist and was at that point. So maybe I'll just get into writing.

That seems like the obvious next step on that journey. And I, truthfully was not, I was not the best fit for content writing, only because it's really hard. Like, I mean, all of it's really hard. But creating content, there's like this quote that's like easy reading. damn hard writing. And it really is true the amount of iterations that you go through to make something perfect. I just found that it wasn't something that I was super passionate about, which was surprising because I was like, but I was a journalist. I love to write. But what I kind of realized that

what I loved about journalism was actually taking a bunch of people's stories and figuring out what the headline was, like what's the story, hearing about people's personal experiences and then saying, okay, this is the big news of the day. This is what's driving people as far as what I was doing was politics. So it was about voting. But I think that that I'm really like a people person. I really like to hear what drives other people, what they're passionate about, what they struggle with, and then try to help that or translate that into a bigger story, if that makes sense. And so that's kind of what let me into community management. I honestly had no idea what community management, like, was. I didn't think, oh, I'll become a community manager. Riverside had

reached out to me about community management. And when I read about what was involved with that, I was like, oh, wow, this is perfect for me. So I'd say for anyone that's making a pivot, that it's about finding the place where you're like, wow, this really suits me. Like, I enjoy doing this as my job because it's also an extension of how I am and my personality on a day to day, you know? Absolutely. And I think I want to deep dive a little bit more into just community in general and how you've built the community at Riverside because I think what you're doing is amazing. And community is, I think, maybe sometimes a little bit more of a blanket term. And I think kind of deep diving into what that actually means for Riverside is going to be really interesting for the audience. And so when you're building a community or the community, what has to come before that, like tactics like different platforms, content, or even engagement strategies?

Yeah, so before any of that, it's research. And so I would say, I mean, for example, when I started at Riverside, and I'm talking about like brand communities as well as other kinds of communities, but for my experiences with the brand, research, it also applies to podcasts or any other kind of community that you're really building, actually. Research. You need to figure out who you're making the community for. Because when I joined Riverside, I had the assumption because I was coming from journalism,

that I'm like, okay, creators want to network. If they want to join a community, they want to network. And that was not particularly true. I mean, networking is really important. It's something that people also like. But I found that really it was about making themselves better by learning through others. But I learned that from having conversations with people. So when I first started my job, I spent more than a month just straight making conversations

to people, reaching out to users saying, hey, I'd love to jump on a call with you and learn more about you. And then we just have a conversation, like, what do you care about? Where are you trying to go? That type of stuff. So that, if you are able to, just hop on calls with people. If it's people that are engaging with your brand, like I would literally go through Instagram comments. And if people commented on our Instagram, I'd reach out and say, hey, I'd love to learn more about you. I'd just started as a community manager. And it was a really cool way to feel. like I knew exactly who I was talking to and exactly what I was making for them. And then beyond that, even if you don't have somebody that you can reach out to like that, it was going on Reddit communities,

for example, other Facebook communities, LinkedIn, and seeing what people were talking about. I would even post in different communities were already kind of adjacent to Riverside and would start conversations and see if those conversations would catch on. So research. That's how you're going to find out where your community should be, what should be posted on it, what they would care about, all of that. It's, it's, it's, that's the basis for sure. Yeah, absolutely. And then I'm, I'm curious, you know, it a lot of times, especially when building a new community, it takes a minute to build trust and to build that connection with the audience to entice other people, to engage in conversation or even spark conversation on their own. So what do you feel, what role do you

feel trust plays in community building and how can brands earn it over time and maybe even some what are some of those tactical things that we can do in order to get people to be excited to engage and to take part in that community yeah so i i think trust is really everything as far as building a brand i think that brands the brands that succeed right now are the ones that are more are the most human to people like to to inspire love for a brand like you don't fall in love for a brand like you don't fall in love with like a like a computer. I mean, I'd hope so. But you fall in love with the brand because it feels human to you.

So there are a few touch points that like help build trust. I'd say community is definitely one of them. It's also support. It's also social media. It's also the product itself. Like is it delivering what it's promising? And I think that people do a lot of research before they just are joining a like taking a platform on.

They're going on Reddit. They're going on Facebook communities. They are looking at your social media. I think that less and less they're going to the specific landing page of a, I mean, they are also checking out the landing page of that company, but I think that they're also looking around at other places than the internet and doing their own research. So that's a huge part of building community is once you build that trust with those people, those people peer to peer are more likely to speak with their peers, post about how much

they love that platform. So it's about recognizing that kind of every touchpoint is a moment to build trust. So for the community, for example, one way that I build trust is that somebody will request a feature from Riverside. I'm taking screenshots to that. I'm sending it to the product team. I'm writing down their name. And then when we have that product, I'm writing to them and saying, hey, that thing that

you requested a month ago, it's out. And it feels just so person to person and so human. And those little things go such a long way. And those are the people that are engaging with us on social media. But another thing, and we'll be talking about video, is video. Like, when I talk about building a human-to-human connection, there is no better way to kind of do that at scale than using video. And that's just because people connect to humans.

Like, for example, social media wasn't built for brands. Like social media was built for people to connect with other people. So if you're just going on social and you're kind of just not really posting the human inside of your brand, which is really relies on video, then you're not, I don't think, able to build that trust. Before we get back to the episode, we wanted to take a moment to tell you about our latest offering for marketing professionals. We get asked all the time where marketers can actually connect outside the podcast.

So we built it, the MHH collective. Monthly life sessions with us and industry experts, real career conversations in a Slack space that's actually helpful and not noisy. If you want to learn with people, not just listen, we'd love to. to have you. If you want to join us, you can find the link in the show notes below. Yeah. Well, speaking of video, and I'm so glad you brought this up, it can be a little intimidating for people, especially dabbling in that for the first time, right? Like we, we flip on the recording and we don't know what to say or we feel a little bit awkward or unsure of how to approach

that. So kind of, you know, twofold question. You already mentioned just talking about how video is important for connection and building that face-to-face. Um, trust with your audience. But how do you kind of overcome that fear or lack of confidence around video? I'm curious what your tips are on that. And then how do you continue to kind of pursue that video in order to increase connection or what's kind of the strategies around using that as a tool for connection, I guess. Yeah. So first of all, I totally agree with you. I think that especially for me coming as a content writer. I think that every brand right now knows they need to be using video. They need to be utilizing video. And you're like, where do I start? Like, I can write like a full newsletter or a

full blog for you, but like you asked me to create video and it just feels so daunting. So I think that what you really need to do is rethink video. So I think that when we as marketers think about video, you're thinking about UGC or you're thinking about like you would even mention like yourself getting in front of the camera and being like, hi, this is the news. feature update or whatever that is. But I want to really like, I think that you need to rethink video. So, for example, we just did user calls with different power users, people, top users that are using Riverside. Half of that was to get to know them. But also, like, why not use those kinds of calls, those kind of testimonials with their permission, of course, to record that content,

to have real users speaking on video to you about what they love. about your platform, how that helped them get to their goals. And that's content. Like I want to just like when you think about video to rethink about it as like recording different conversations. So user testimonials, putting that online that builds so much trust and you're able to see people that that are like you using the product and actually getting the results that they want, huge. Or how about getting on a call, a recording with C level and just ask you, the different questions about where they think the brand is going, what's important to them, making a video out of that. Like, you don't even have to be on that video. It's just really

great content to be putting out there. Having your product team do a walkthrough on video of a new feature that they've put out. Like, that's good content. And it adds the human face to your product. Or, I don't know, if you're doing, if you have a clothing brand, for example, just like taking a video of how you're developing a the new sweater line that you are putting out. Like that and seeing the people behind it. Like that builds trust, that builds confidence. And there are just so many really smart, cool ways to be doing it that don't involve you as a marketer having to sit there in front of the camera. I mean podcasting, video podcasting is huge.

It builds a lot of brand trust. It's it makes you kind of like a thought leader in your space. So that's also great. Webinars, doing different webinars, and I don't want to make this answer too long, but there's so much to talk about with using webinars as kind of like a basis for your content strategy. But yeah, I think that all of that kind of stuff helps build trust for you in your brand. I'm curious to hear too, Kendall. You know, there are metrics and ways to kind of define the success of video.

But if creators and brands are looking to maybe start their journey in video, what are some of those ways that they can actually maybe quantify the success of a video or a video series? Like, can connection actually be a metric versus just reach or views, right? I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that because I think we have a lot of marketers that are listening that are tied to specific goals and metrics when they create something like a video series or an individual. individual video. And so I'm curious to hear your take on that. Yeah. So, I mean, there's the, the obvious ones that we all kind of know, which my mind, like, initially goes to engagement and that's starting conversations. I think that building trust is a long game. Like, for example, we do a webinar series. And you don't know when you're doing that webinar, how many people walk away from it feeling like, wow, I feel really supported by Riverside and what they just put out there.

How we do know that is through conversations that we actually have with our users who say, one of the reasons that I continued or even started with Riverside is because of all the education that you're putting out. Like, I know that we're all chasing those kinds of KPIs that have to do with the views, the engagement, but there is so much to be said for the amount of like the connection that you're making and it's hard to quantify. I would say, and this is like a different kind of metric than than what I think that people are used to in this. conversation is output, how much you can get out of a video. So when you're working so hard on a webinar, for example, you are putting out, you're putting on this live event, you're doing the registration, like it's a slog to get a webinar out there. And we all really know that. So what about

saying, okay, I have this webinar. From that, I made five social posts of people of the conversation from the webinar. I took the transcript and I turned it into a blog post. I put it into a newsletter. I was able to cut a 10-minute segment from it and put it on the top of this blog article, which is incredible for SEO, having video in your blog articles. What about being able to show that, like,

the video that you're creating, the amount of output that it's getting, repurposing it. I think that that's a really cool new way to be looking at video and what you can be doing with it. Beyond engagement, reach, all of that is like,

I took this one-hour webinar and turned it into a, month's worth of content because you can really do that, especially when you have your AI transcript or anything like that. It's a lot easier than you think to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I thank you for sharing that because I think a lot of times we look at something like a podcast, for example, and we feel like it's really daunting. But using that as a way to support other channels that you're building, I think is a good way to sell it, especially from a corporate sense. Like if we're talking about how do we sell the investment of doing a video podcast, for example, just sharing how that can support other channels,

like a blog, like social, et cetera, and not just once, but multiple times, right? I think that's a really good way to just sell the platform and the medium. Yeah. And even like beyond video also, like, for example, I did a webinar on how to repurpose, like into many episodes. Great. So I made that into a guide to a downloadable gated guide. you put your email in you can download it i put that guide on our community like there was so much

different i can put five tips from the webinar have it be a video and then also have it be a static uh image a carousel of five tips that we gain from this webinar like there's just so much content that you can make out of one video yeah absolutely yeah i could we could go on and on about examples around that but yes yeah start making video that is the synopsis of this conversation yes um so So Kendall, another question for you. You already kind of talked at the top of the episode just about the importance of research when you're going to build community. I'm just curious if there's someone listening who says that they want to start building community through video in 2026. Outside of research or even just expanding on that, what is maybe the first step or steps that they should take in order to do so?

I would say, and not to sound like I'm repetitive, but I would say to try recording one video. and seeing how far it could take you. So whether that's like they want to build a community, okay, so maybe that's a podcast episode, seeing how much content you can create out of that. Can that be a social post? Can that be a blog post? So that would be one thing that I would say, taking the transcript and seeing how you can repurpose with that.

But I would also say that when you're building community, it's so important to show up as yourself. And so maybe take a time to record just you talking about like why, like something that has to do with your community. Let's give an example. Maybe you have a pop culture podcast or a pop culture community or something of people that love to talk about something in pop culture. And you can just take a video of yourself talking about that topic. People want to connect to that. They want to comment on that. It's about like putting yourself out there. And I think with video, that can be really intimidating. But I think that once you really try it, you start to see that it's really not that it's much more approachable than you think.

And I think that you'll be more excited than you think about what the final product is. I mean, like, not to sound too vain of myself, but I just did a video of for Riverside and we put on a LinkedIn. And like, I was so excited by the reception of it. I watched it. Like, I usually hate listening to my voice. I watched it a few times because I was proud of it. And it also got people that are in our community commenting, feeling like they're connected to this human person behind this brand.

Man, I am learning so much from you actively as we're talking here today. So thank you so much. I think for me, I'm still very new to this space too. So hearing these tips from you are really helpful and just going to take some, you know, going to take some actionable steps after this and actually try to record myself and try to, because I feel very similarly, right? Like I'm very intimidated by video.

and it's not something I've done, you know, by myself, just more in a group setting with Cassie. So I'm excited to kind of try that and take your tips and put them into action. There's so many things that you could do. Like, for example, I know a creator in Riverside that's a coach. And so he speaks and he does its own marketing. So he speaks with user, or not users, people that he's coaching. And he records the entire conversation. And it's not to really even put out there.

It's just another video use. It's to transcribe all of it. And then he takes all those transcriptions, has a GPT that he uses, and it will take, what are the top words that I keep hearing from people? What are the insights from all of these conversations? That is such a smart way to do marketing, is to like from the actual mouths of your users, of your customers, to then be able to take all of those insights from all of those transcripts and create content on top of that that's actually answering to the way they speak, what they say, what their goals are, what they're struggling with. Like, there's just, I'm nerding out, but there's a lot that you could do. No, it's, it's incredible. And I think for us, too, you know, as Cassie mentioned, we just launched our first community.

And so all of these insights are really helpful for us as we're kind of in this early phase of just launching and things that we want to build and iterate on. So we appreciate it for sure. Yeah, of course. As we kind of round out our conversation with you, Kendall, I am curious. We're asking a lot of our guests this at the top of 2026, but is there one marketing hill that you're willing to die on in 2026? Okay, I don't want to seem like I'm repeating myself, but like video, really try it.

And they're like, like, don't like the hill I'll die on is that creating content, like creating video content is not actually that hard. Like that is a hill that I'll die on. I think that we continue as marketers to be like, like, when we think of video, we're like, oh, our video editor or our producer, if you have that on your team. But like, it is really not that hard to be creating. yourself like I do my own I do webinars completely by myself for Riverside I'm editing them I'm putting them into clips and like I have truly nothing to do with video editing but I can do it myself

so my hill that I'll die on is that adding video content to your marketing strategy is actually not that hard yes yes and this is absolutely not a sales pitch but I will say like Riverside truly makes it so easy to do all of that stuff. We too edit everything ourselves through Riverside. We use magic clips to pull stuff for social. It is so simple. So especially if you are, let's say you're working full-time and you want to dabble with content creation on the side

or you're a full-time creator, whoever you are, you're working for a brand even in wanting to do more of this. Like try it out. And it's, I promise you, it's pretty awesome. So I've tried all the tools out there. So big fan. Amazing. I'm going to clip that and you'll see it on our social soon. I'm kidding. Absolutely.

Repurpose that. Yes. No, I'm fully serious. I was literally just at a podcast conference in in Orlando on Friday and I was speaking and I said the same thing. Like I fully am all in on it. So yes, thank you to your team for creating such a great resource, truly. Very grateful. Thank you to you for being part of the community and also like peer to peer to share. that because I think that that's just when you talk about community and why it's important, it's because like peer to peer recommendations and endorsements of like what people are actually using is just so important and huge and carry so much weight. So really appreciate that.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, last question as we close out, Kendall, would love to follow along with you personally in your career journey as well as Riverside, of course. So if you don't mind, share with us all of the different places that we should be connecting with you in the So you can connect with me on LinkedIn, and you can also find me and the brand at our Facebook community group. It's called Conversation Creators by Riverside. You'll see a lot of me there and a lot of creators that are helping each other and really supporting each other. It's like my favorite little corner of the internet. And then you can follow along with Riverside on Instagram, LinkedIn, wherever, any platform that you love, we're on it. So yeah, follow along. And I would have

say 2026 is a great time to follow along because we are we have a ton of new features that we're going to be releasing so i'm i'm really excited about them so definitely definitely give us a follow excellent thank you so much kendall we really appreciate it we'll have all the links below that you mentioned but thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all things video and community with us yeah thank you so much this was great thanks so much for listening to this episode of marketing happy If you enjoyed it, make sure you're subscribed to the show and sign up for a weekly newsletter with insights and marketing resources. We also invite you to check out the MHHH collective, our community for marketers looking to connect, grow, and learn together. Check out the links in the show notes. We'll see you next time.