220 | Why I'm Changing The Name of My Podcast

I have been building this podcast grow the show for five years and today I'm walking away hundreds of episodes later thousands of podcasters helped and yet recently I looked up and I realized something that I didn't expect it's time for a change over the years I've told so many podcasting entrepreneurs that they needed to refine their premise whether it was their audience their show promise or even the title of their show and now it's my turn but why though why is your podcasts brand premise and positioning so important and what made me decide it was time to rebrand well that's what this episode is all about this is grow the show the podcast that grows your podcast my name is Kevin I'm your podcast growth coach and today I'm sharing five realizations that changed how I see content business and what it really means to grow an audience and here's what you're going to learn number one why I am rebranding a show with such a strong name number two the kind of audience you should never build a podcast around I learned this one the hard way and number three the subtle trap that experienced creators fall into without realizing it and I fell into it too plus of course I'm going to reveal the new name of this show who it's going to be for and what is coming next so if you've ever wondered whether your show is still aligned with your goals or if it might be time for a reinvention of your own this episode is going to be for you so let's dive into the first of five realizations that I've had that led to this decision the first realization came to me as I was reviewing an audience survey that I did last fall so I try to do an audience survey about once a year and I've done I think three now for the grow the show audience and what I've noticed is that every time I do an audience survey I'm surprised by the fact that the majority of people who fill it out had discovered me within the last six months you see I'm like every other creator and audience builder I have this idea that my audience has been with me the whole time so like when I'm talking to you I'm imagining somebody who's been listening to me since 2020 but the reality is very few people have been paying attention to me since 2020 and that's probably true for most audiences but what I recently realized is that that is especially true for my audience why is that well it is no secret that most podcasters quit their show really quickly and I've heard people say the average podcast only makes you to five episodes I've heard eight I've heard 10 but regardless of which number you choose everybody knows that podcasters tend to quit but what I didn't really realize for a while is that if you have a podcast that is about growing a podcast that podcast is only interesting to people who currently are podcasters so what that means is every six months a bunch of people start a new podcast and they become a potential listener of my show but the problem is every six months roughly the same amount of people quit podcasting and are no longer interested in my show because my podcast is the podcast that grows your podcast also by the way I'm pretty tired of saying the word podcast I'm not going to stop but damn so if I look at the past five years and I look at my total audience size I'm going to be honest it's smaller than I want it to be and also I have some like real imposters syndrome because a lot of the people that I have helped have much bigger audiences than mine and it what's been weird to me is I'm like man this is kind of frustrating because like these people are doing the stuff that I taught them to do and their audiences are growing way bigger than mine what the heck well if you think about it it makes sense when people quit their podcast they quit being a listener of grow the show I recently learned that there is a term for this it's called structural churn I learned this from Alex Armosi who was talking about businesses where your customers naturally churn out and I was like ah as soon as I heard the term I was like oh my god that is what I have my audience has structural churn because so many people quit podcasting other audiences that have built in structural churn include real estate agents so if you sell houses then the only people who are going to be interested in content about selling houses are the people who right now want to buy a house but the second they close on that house they are not going to be interested at all in house buying content for one year five years 10 years 30 years so if that's you if you're making content about buying a house you have structural churn same thing with weddings if your content is for people who are going to get married and it's about having a wedding you have structural churn because that audience is only going to be interested in your content from the moment they get engaged till the moment they get married hopefully if their vows are true for the rest of their lives but realistically probably five plus years right so realization number one is that I am an audience growth guy who is trying to build an audience on top of an avatar that has structural churn and so because of that my audience churns I've had 7500 Instagram followers for three years and it's stayed the same and large part that has to do with the fact that I'm talking about podcast growth and people quit podcasting now this is particularly impactful if you are a podcaster if you're on tiktok or on social media you can post content for an audience that's going to structurally churn because as that audience churns the algorithm is going to change the content that it shows to those people we don't have to worry about that on social media because as soon as somebody gets married Instagram's going to figure out pretty quickly that they're not interested in marriage content anymore so if you're posting marriage content Instagram's constantly going to be adjusting so that it shows you to the right people podcasting isn't like that we are our own algorithm we have to go out make people discover us and get them to pay attention to our show and because it's so much work to get a podcast listener if you really want to build a show that lasts then you want to make it so that the show is built off of a premise where people are going to be interested in the show every single week for years to come that is the change I am going to be making with my show where the people who are interested in the content that I'm publishing are going to be interested in it for years to come so that's realization number one realization number two came to me while I was attending a mastermind a couple of years ago at that mastermind there was a presentation being made by a fella named Rich Sheffrin Rich is an OG in the marketing space he's been doing marketing for freaking decades longer than I've been a functional adult and what he taught in that session is that marketing tactics have a five-year life cycle so essentially at any given moment there's marketing tactics that are really new and because they're so new they work really really really well and they work well because number one people haven't really been marketed to in that way before so they're not like tuning it out yet like think about how you tune out Instagram ads you don't even see him you just wow go right past it unless it's really good like mine but new marketing it gets your attention because you're like oh that's interesting I haven't seen this before so not only is it new to the people who are seeing the marketing but it also works really really well because there's way less competition so think about like if you were a podcast listener in like 2017 square space cash per mattresses athletic greens these companies exploded thanks to podcast advertising because other companies were not podcast advertising and it was really cheap so if you are a podcast listener you learned about these companies then and you probably bought something that's an example of in the early days how there's big gains to be had early on in a marketing tactic what does that have to do with me you and my podcast well rich suffering went on to explain that for the first two years of a marketing tactic it works really well and there's a huge advantage just in using that tactic so you could be a crappy marketer but just because you're one of the people using that new tactic you get great results then the word starts to spread and with time more and more people start to use that marketing tactics so there's more competition and also people who are being marketed start to see more and more marketing via that tactic and start to tune it out it stops working so much fast forward to five years after a new marketing tactic hits the scene at that point there's virtually no inherent advantage using that specific tactic meaning like just using that tactic alone isn't going to do anything you have to be a really really good marketer to use that tactic and have it be successful so marketing tactics come and go the same thing is true for any content format youtube podcast social media platforms different types of posts on social media platforms it's all true now I personally think that podcasting has reset the clock a little bit because the word podcast is changing so the definition of what a podcast is in people's minds is different now so that kind of reset that five year clock but the five year clock is still ticking and so I'm someone who started being the podcast guy in 2020 and podcasting was different then like it was it was kind of sexier people were trying it out more it was much easier to grow podcasts in 2020 and things are different now and so as I look ahead at my future and the company that I'm building I'm like hmm do I want to build a company around podcast growth am I confident that podcasting will still be a thing in five years 10 years even 30 years here's my question what's the grow the blog guy doing right now you know blogs were super popular and we're a great way to grow a business in like the mid 2000s and so if somebody like created a brand around being the blog person what are they doing now I don't want to be that guy so what I've learned is that tactics come and go I am not interested in building a company around a singular tactic I want to build a company around an outcome side note one just final thing on like the five year life cycle of tactics I speak to a lot of podcasters who were successful in like between 2015 and 2019 and it happens all the time it breaks my heart I get on a call with a podcaster and they're like we really really had a great show in 2015 we had all these downloads in 2018 and 2019 and now it's just not the same we're struggling we really want to get back to where we were and I at this point don't even help those folks because they're essentially searching for a way to make podcasting as easy as it used to be for them like in 2019 because it was just way easier to grow a show because there was less competition and more people were discovering podcasts so it's just way easier to grow a podcast back then and there's way more competition now your podcast has to be better you have to put more effort into your podcast now to make it as successful to have the same amount of success as you did in 2019 so you know these folks come to me and they're not really interested in putting more effort into the show they would rather find the strategy that can make it so that they can have the same success with the same amount of effort that they had in 2018 and it's kind of doomed I tell them and I show them here's how to grow your podcast today and they're like because they're like let me try to find something that's as easy as it used to be but they're just kind of doomed anyway I digress so here's my point grow the show the show and grow the show the company are built around one specific tactic but tactics lose power they get saturated or they just fall out of style and what I've seen is that businesses that are built around tactics they have a moment but they are vulnerable so what I'm finding is that it is much better to build a podcast not around a tactic but around the transformation that a tactic can cause so it's not about how you're going to get somewhere but it's about where you're going to get using that tactic if you brand your podcasts around that around the outcome around the destination then as the tactics change so can your podcast without having to rebrand that is what I am going to do realization number three that I had recently AI has flattened the playing field specifically when it comes to knowledge so like you I have started to see AI generated posts and copy and social media stuff everywhere and I've noticed that the tips the tricks the 10 step methods are all the same and they are getting virtually no engagement people are just not engaging with how to content like they were five years ago when I launched this show and when I launched my personal brand around podcast growth in 2020 if I posted a well thought out how to podcast episode or YouTube video or even like an Instagram carousel or a video or something like that and it like had discrete steps and it taught somebody something it did very very well nowadays that is not the case I think that that is because of AI because AI has commoditized information it has commoditized knowledge just five years ago in 2020 if you wanted to know how to do something you had a couple of options you could search Google and have to sift through like 25 ridiculous SEO optimized articles that were written by some software company trying to get you to get a free trial for their thing you had to go through a bunch of information and you never really got the answer but if you discovered a influencer on social media who you trusted who was an expert they were posting informational content and you loved it because you're like oh great finally this is some good information I could use let me save this so the experts kind of served as like the sifting function you could just say I'm going to just do with this expert says so I don't have to sift through all the information that's poorly organized on the internet then chat GPT came to be and now you don't even go to Google anymore you just go to chat GPT and ask the question and it immediately gives you all the information that you need so what does that mean for us well knowledge is a commodity information is not scarce anymore and it is also not so abundant that people rely on experts to curate it now information is at your fingertips and the right information is there instantly people don't need to follow you or consume your content to get information anymore however this is the realization I believe that there's two things that AI will never replace and that is your experiences and your relationships AI can't do something that you did AI will never have a lived story like you will so I strongly believe this is where online content is going it's not going to be about sharing information it's going to be about sharing the stories that you've lived and that you've encountered the real experiences that you've had and the relationships that you have with others realization number four that's going into this rebrand is the difference between attention and audience so there's a creator who I've already mentioned on this podcast who says attention is the new oil if you're in the entrepreneur spheres you've heard that said before however I believe that there is a huge difference between attention and audience case in point recently I was speaking with a team who produces a podcast for a high net worth individual that person has tons of access and can get virtually anybody he wants as a guest on his show and that's what he has done he has had unbelievable big names guests on his show however his show has no virtually no subscribers and it's crazy because if you look at the YouTube channel they have videos that have gotten in the tens of thousands of views but they only have 3000 subs and their podcast gets like 200 downloads per episode which is really surprising because they have huge names like the access that this person has is unbelievable so that person has access to incredible guests he's got a baller studio he looks great and he's got an expensive and talented team who clearly knows how to get attention they can get views but the problem is that show does not have audience if you ever talk to somebody who has gone viral on social media they will tell you that they have gotten tons of attention but it did not build an audience attention is when someone looks at you for a moment audience is when someone follows you they know who you are and they look forward to the next thing that you publish think about two guitar players one guitar player is busking in time square he's just on the one of the busiest streets in New York City and he has literally tens of thousands of people who pass him every day and they pass him they turn they listen to him he has their attention for just a moment he plays songs that they already know maybe that's what got their attention they knew of the song he was playing they listen for a moment maybe they throw in a dollar and they move on with their day and they never think of that guitar player ever again for the rest of their lives that guitar player has tons of attention he has no audience compare that to another guitar player she writes and composes her own music and she has built a following where she tours the country and fills small theaters that guitar player may on balance get less attention than the busker in time square if you define attention as people looking at you so like the number of people who have listened to this guitar player play music is smaller she's got less attention but she's made more money because she has more of an audience those people know all of her music they look forward to her upcoming releases and they go out of their way to attend her shows that is an audience so whenever you hear somebody say I just need more attention entrepreneurs you need more attention yes you need to get attention to build an audience but what you really want is an audience because attention is cheap and an audience is what matters so that's realization number four entrepreneurs right now believe that attention is the new oil and that they need to get attention and while that is true let's take the analogy a little bit further you can't put crude oil in your car it has to be refined so while yes attention is the new oil that attention needs to be refined into audience an audience is what can fuel a business realization number five if you're going to create content if you're going to build an audience you got to be interested in it you have to keep it interesting for yourself I'm going to be frank I'm a little burned out on talking about podcast intros I'm a little burned out answering beginner questions on podcasting and if you think back to realization number one audience turn it's kind of exhausting to every six months have new people who all have the same new questions and are making the same new mistakes it's been five years I'm kind of tired of it I'm looking to expand I want to branch out so what's funny is like I had the idea that it might be time to rebrand and initially I was like I can't do that I got to like represent my podcaster folks I got to just like double down right just double down on what you know and for a while I had the craving to change what I was talking about but I felt like I hadn't earned it yet so I'll be honest I've known for a while that I would like to expand my horizons and the stuff that I've talked about and it's happened quite often that people have said to me I listen to grow the show and grow the show is helping me with my business or my Instagram or has helped me with stuff that's not related to my podcast so I know personally that I have the chops to expand my horizons and talk about other things but if I'm being honest I really haven't done that because I feel like I haven't earned it yet and I don't know what that moment is where I'm like oh I've earned talking about other things but that's the construct that I had in my head I was like I have to reach some sort of finish line with podcast growth before I can graduate to talking about other things but you know I don't feel like I care about that anymore because there was a day where I was like okay well if I were to make a show that isn't just about podcast growth and serves a larger purpose and didn't have structural churn what would that show look like and I started ideating I started writing here's who I would interview here's the content that I would make here's ideas that I could have and I'm gonna be honest I got excited again frankly I have not been excited about grow the show content for a while and if you look at my feed you can see I've broken every rule I have been inconsistent you know I've been republishing stuff it just hasn't been inspired but now I'm inspired again and that feels freaking good so that was realization number five and this is something that I learned from Pat Flynn Pat Flynn when I interviewed him for grow the show a couple years ago he was like as a creator you just you have to make it fun if it is not fun it's not gonna be good and if it's not good you're eventually going to lose your audience because it's not gonna be good and they're not going to be interested so let's number five despite what all the gurus including myself say who say stay focused do what you know don't talk about stuff you haven't done talk about how to tell you want man talk about what you're excited to talk about because content creation is pain in the butt it is brutal it is a life sentence you gotta be having fun with it it's gotta be something that at least a little bit you look forward to or else you're just doomed this change is getting me excited again and I'm excited to share that excitement with you normally I'm not super woo woo and I would never say something like you got to make content around what lights you up because yes I work with tons of people who want to launch a show that's around business growth they don't even have a business so a topic lighting you up isn't by itself enough right so if you're excited to talk about something that doesn't mean that the show is gonna be good or that the show is gonna grow but I can guarantee you that the show is not gonna grow if your topics don't light you up are you with me so the stuff that you talk about when you make podcast episodes have to light you up in order for this to work if they don't it's just not gonna be good all right so those five realizations have led me to the decision to rename this show now I am not going to be renaming my product so I will still have the grow the show accelerator the grow the show accelerator is still going to be the place where I work with podcasts and podcasting teams to grow shows that are meant to support a business however this podcast is going to be renamed this name and this new focus is going to solve the problems that I have mentioned here number one this audience is not going to have structural turn number two this is going to be agnostic of tactics so I'm going to talk about several different tactics to achieve the transformation on the show here and as the tactics change that's fine the show won't need to change either number three I think that this topic is going to be immune to AI number four this topic is not about getting attention and number five this freaking stuff lights me up I am so excited to make this show now if you look at the app that you're using to consume this content right now you'll notice that this name isn't there yet so I am not rolling this name out right away it's coming down the pipeline it'll be a few weeks because I've got some work to do with it and I want to get it right but I'm telling you now number one to share these lessons and say hey this is what I'm doing and so I'm going to do this live like I'm going to literally you're going to witness me rebrand this podcast change the audience avatar and you're going to watch it grow you're going to watch how much faster it grows to because of these changes but I'm sharing this with you now number one just to get this information to you so you can consider it for yourself but number two because I need your help I need your feedback on two things the new name and the new tile artwork all right so what is the new name drumroll please within the next few weeks this podcast grow the show is going to become chief audience officer chief audience officer is going to be the podcast that is here to help you build an audience of buyers it is for business owners only it is for business owners who are looking to build an audience audience is the key word that I will be building this show around because audience is humans audience is people you're going to hear me try not to use the word content because I cringe at that word because content means filler you're going to hear me use the word audience because audience is when you have an audience people know who you are when you have an audience people are paying attention to you people are giving you their attention and when you have an audience people by your stuff so chief audience officer will be several things it's going to be a me sharing what I have learned about growing an audience be it's going to be me sharing with you the mistakes that I'm making as I aim to grow an audience and build a business that is fueled by an audience and yes of course number three I'm going to interview those who have audience driven businesses and my goal is to get some of the biggest folks around to join me here on the show and speak specifically about their audience how do they define their audience how has audience changed the way that they operate their business who did they have to become to have an audience and yes of course what are the tactics to build grow and maintain an audience in today's world you will hear me talk about podcasts a lot because chief audience officer is going to be a podcast and sure that's what I know about but you're also going to start to hear me talk about other things like sales funnels like social media which admittedly I have a lot to learn about like emailing and who knows what else so that is the new name I would love to know what you think about it good batter ugly and also I need you to help me pick a new tile so if you go into the description or the show notes there is a link where you can vote on the new podcast tile for chief audience officer and you'll notice that I'm breaking a rule that I told you that you should never break because I'm learning and I'm testing something new so I have two requests request number one via the link in the show notes click the link that asks you for feedback on the new name it's a very simple form I'd love to know what you think number two click the link that asks you to vote for the podcast tile art for chief audience officer would love to know what you think what your favorite one is and if you are a business owner who is looking to build an audience of buyers and you want to have your own audience driven business with lower marketing costs easier sales and bigger impact than you should subscribe because very soon grow the show will be chief audience officer my name is Kevin I'll see you in the next one I have two things for you before I let you go number one real quick if you've ever gotten any value from the show please if you haven't yet leave us a five star review I get a notification every single time reviews come through and they almost always make my day so please please I would love to hear from you it really really helps us and then the second thing is if you are a podcaster who needs help with production if you are struggling with all the time it takes to make these things and you haven't yet definitely set up a conversation with podcast boutique they are the team that I've been working with for five six years they're my most trusted production agency and recently they added an incredible service that you're going to want to hear about they call it record and forget I've been using it for months it is amazing you just record your episode and send it to them they do the content editing for you they create titles show notes they can make it into an amazing YouTube video clips and of course high value production so the content editing piece is the thing that I know people have been asking for for a long time it is unbelievably good all I do is record I send it off to them they handle the rest and by the way they are also closely in lockstep with me so anytime I deserve something that is working to grow and monetize a podcast I immediately share it with them we work to implement it with my show and then they implement it with the other shows that they work on so if you're spending time yourself doing any of the editing or post production or if your current post production team isn't cutting it maybe they're an internal team that doesn't know what they're doing or they're an external team that's either too expensive or does not keep their promises which is very common check out podcast boutique you can go to podcast boutique.com let them know that I sent you all right I'll see you in the next episode