How Dean Steinman of Ortho Marketing Has Become the Ultimate Authority for US Orthodontists

[00:00:00] Hector: M Y P. Welcome today's episode. My name is Hector San Stephan and I am the host of your show. And this is the show to give you all the tools, the resources, the trainings that you need to go out there and successfully grow and market your podcast. And today we're gonna talk about, well, maybe something that's a little bit different or maybe something that.

[00:00:18] Hector: Might be on your mind, and that is rebranding your podcast. And this has come up quite a bit in the circles and the conversations that I've been having with hosts. Mostly because it's the new year, people are thinking about new things. it's a new time, it's a fresh start. And so, People have been reflecting and they've been looking back on this past year, and I think that a couple of things are happening, right?

[00:00:37] Hector: You can either look back on this past year and think about, wow, how amazing things went, the progress that you've made, and then the trajectory that you are on for this next coming year. or you might be looking at this past year and thinking, wow, things didn't go exactly as I planned. Things didn't actually turn out how I saw them.

[00:00:54] Hector: Maybe you saw yourself putting out more episodes. Maybe you saw yourself getting more traction, more downloads. Maybe there was some bouts of inconsistency, or maybe there was some things that you wanted to do that you never got a chance to do. All of these things can start to bubble up this time of year, and so it's a great time to think about how might.

[00:01:12] Hector: Rebrand your podcast. How might you adjust it? And I'm not saying that you have to change the whole thing. I'm not saying you have to start over completely, although maybe that is what you might do. Maybe that is what you might wanna do. And so we're gonna talk about some questions that you might ask yourself if you wanna rebrand your podcast.

[00:01:28] Hector: But before I go and say any of that, I have to tell you. , if you are still going strong and if you are still producing and you're still publishing, you're just out there publishing, I wanna give you a pat on the back. I wanna give you a little fist bump here. If you're watching this video, here's a little fist bump.

[00:01:41] Hector: if you're listening right, here's a fist bump for you because this podcasting game is hard. , it's long, it's lonely. It can be depressing sometimes, right? It can be defeating, it can be depleting, all of those things. And so if you guys are still here, if you're still publishing, you're still going on, I wanna give you a pat on the back.

[00:02:00] Hector: I wanna give you this fist bump, and I wanna let you know that you are seen and that you are heard

[00:02:04] Hector: now. , I mentioned that the question for today is, should you rebrand your podcast? And what I would say is, are you happy with your show? That's really a, maybe a better question. Are you happy with your show? Are you excited? Are you still passionate about your show? Because I think more important than anything, that's what you need to be.

[00:02:23] Hector: So I see this happen with a lot of shows, and what happens is they get started on maybe an idea that they were excited about, but they are 10, 20, 30, 50, a hundred episodes, 200 episodes in, and they look up and the thing that they were initially excited about

[00:02:38] Hector: isn't actually what they're still passionate about. I think about even this show, right, to a less extent has this show gone through a little bit of a subtle rebrand? Yeah, absolutely. At the beginning, this show was really focused all on marketing tactics. We were like, how to grow on Instagram, how to grow on Twitter, how to leverage all of these tactics to be able to grow your show.

[00:02:58] Hector: Throughout that process and in trying to find out and get these answers on what's the way to the best way to grow a show, I've realized that it's not actually the tactics, it's not actually the platform. It's not actually the channels or the videos or the little buttons or the, it's not actually that, that makes the biggest difference.

[00:03:13] Hector: The biggest difference is actually made when you create a better show. and that starts even before you hit the record button, before you book the guest all of that starts, well, even before you even name your show. So all of those things are so important to actually growing and sustaining a successful podcast.

[00:03:30] Hector: So if you find yourself not as passionate, not as excited, not as riveted as you might once have been. Maybe it is a time to. Rebrand the show to change the direction, to change the theme, to change the topics even so subtly. I think about one of our clients right now, and shout out to Erica Markou. She is the host of the Your Truth Revealed Podcast, and she's Four Seasons in, and the first three episodes were devoted entirely to mental health.

[00:03:57] Hector: They all had mental health experts, therapists, and it was a show about mental health. And some things happened in Erica's life that caused her interests, her passions, her life, frankly, to change.

[00:04:07] Hector: She's going through some health conditions and.

[00:04:09] Hector: This past year she had some major health changes and some things that she's going through, and so now her entire life has been devoted to this, and so that's what her show has shifted to. Instead of being focused on healing emotionally, her show is actually focused on healing people who are dealing with these immunocompromised disorders, these conditions. And so the show has stayed the same, the title's the same, the picture's the same.

[00:04:31] Hector: We updated the website a bit, but the theme and the topic has changed a bit and it's so much more reflective of who she is and what she wants to put out into the world. And so this pod fade thing that's come up a lot on our show, I think happens a lot when people, start something but then they lose interest, they lose a spark, or it shifts and it changes into something else, and they're all of a sudden afraid to be able to put.

[00:04:54] Hector: That sort of stuff out there for whatever reason, maybe they don't wanna lose the listeners that they've already had. Maybe they're unsure about what other people are gonna say. There's all these reasons that this can happen, , but asking yourself whether or not you're still passionate about the topic is one of the first questions that you should ask if you're gonna rebrand your show.

[00:05:10] Hector: Another thing that you might ask yourself is should you change the branding. And your branding is everything from the way that your show looks, to the way that your show sounds, to how your listeners feel when they interact and engage with.

[00:05:21] Hector: Your brand or your show. And so that's everything from your cover art to your banners, to the musical intros, to the jingles, to the transition. All of this stuff helps to create an experience. I try and compare 'em a lot of things, but I think that there's a very easy comparison to like a restaurant in the sense that a restaurant experience is so about so much more than just the food, right?

[00:05:42] Hector: Because there are plenty of restaurants that have great food that most of us would never go into because the outside is a little shabby or the inside is a little bit run down.

[00:05:51] Hector: or maybe even the waitress or the hostess is rude or, there's all these other variables outside of weather or not. The food is actually good and the same thing happens with podcasting. You could be delivering some really great values, some really important, valuable stuff, but if people.

[00:06:08] Hector: Wanna click on it because the cover art turns them away, or the title isn't descriptive enough, or the music is off key or off tone and something that they don't enjoy.

[00:06:16] Hector: All those things play into your listener experience. So take a look at everything that your listener experiences, even before they hit the play button, right? Things like your name, your show name.

[00:06:26] Hector: So is your show name clear and concise? Does it make sense what the show is actually about? Is your description clear and concise? Does that give a little more detail into what the show is about? Are your episode titles, are those clear? Is everything signaling what the show is about? Or are you expecting the listener to figure this all out on their own?

[00:06:45] Hector: So all that to say is to take a look at some of the basics, some of the things that you filled out on the very first day, your show name, your show description, your categories, all these things can really, really make a big difference.

[00:06:55] Hector: Now, another way that you might rebrand your show is by changing up your format. So, A lot of people get into podcasting and they do the typical interviews and those are great and they're fantastic and there are still a ton of value. And I listen to shows that are just interviews and it's great. sometimes having just that standard conversation is all a listener needs.

[00:07:17] Hector: but that's not always the case because there are a ton of interview shows. And so if we are looking for a way to differentiate ourself or we're looking for a way to stand out to be different from all the other shows, then we've got to be able and be willing to do something a little bit different. And so this doesn't mean that you have to do weird different formats or you've gotta go and have these really elaborate productions and these scripts and stuff like that.

[00:07:42] Hector: could you add or change up your show li a little bit? Right? Is there a way that you might be able to add on a segment to your normal interviews? If you just go right into the interview, could you add in a little bit of an intro or an outro with some commentary or some analysis or some. Recap of what it is to give the listener a little bit more insight into your personality, right?

[00:08:01] Hector: Could you do a totally different show format where if you're only doing interview shows, maybe you start to do solo, or if you're doing solo, can you find a way to incorporate guests into your show? Can you add in smaller segments? Things like news segments. Or, tool segments or, quick little promotional spots for other podcasts out there so that way you can swap with them and do some sort of cross collaboration.

[00:08:23] Hector: But is there a way for you to update your show format? Because what I've seen happen a lot of times too is that a podcaster will start and they'll get, you know, 20, 30, 50 episodes in sometimes even, like I said, a hundred episodes in. And if you listen to the hundredth episode, and if you listen to the first.

[00:08:41] Hector: you wouldn't be able to tell any difference. And I think that that is absolutely a travesty because there's so much time that's been possible to evolve. but so many podcasters feel like they have to stick into their box. And what I would encourage you to do is to realize that there is no box.

[00:08:58] Hector: And what I found is the best way to be able to evolve your show is to try and experiment with little things. Don't go and change the whole thing overnight because A,

[00:09:08] Hector: it might be a lot of work and it might not work. But make small adjustments. Add a little sound here. Try this jingle, put this transition in here. Add this segment here. Say this at the beginning. Try it, see how it feels. And what you'll see is you'll start to find things that feel good for you. And then by doing this enough, you'll start to find things that resonate with your audience as.

[00:09:27] Hector: The last thing that you might consider is should you update your release schedule? And I think this is a big thing to think about, right? This is a big topic because once again, so many podcasters come in and they think that there is a standard box and they should release an episode once a week or twice a week or whatever it is, and their certain day is, and the truth is, is that, does it help to be consistent?

[00:09:48] Hector: Absolutely. Does it help to publish on the same day, you know, every week. , but is that imperative, is that necessary to Absolutely. To succeed or sustain a show over the long term? Absolutely not. And to figure out what works for you if you need to. Pull back a bit. Be okay doing that, right? If you are putting out an episode once a week, and it's a lot, you feel like you're never catching up, you're always underwater, you're, constantly just trying to stay on schedule, well be okay switching it to every two weeks or split it up into two parts, or find a way that you can space those out.

[00:10:23] Hector: Even three episodes a month right? Might be something that you consider. , if you're in that place where you're just constantly feeling like you're just keeping your head above water, the. Place that you might be in though is you might be in a place where you're like, things are not moving as quickly as you want them to.

[00:10:38] Hector: you're not getting as much traction, you're not getting as much download, right? Like things aren't moving as quickly as you can. Well, one, I don't wanna say easy, but one simple way to turn up the nozzle to turn up the heat is to put out more shows because that will absolutely help to grow your downloads.

[00:10:53] Hector: It will absolutely grow your audience, even if it's just slowly in my experience with a show that's been pretty established, that was doing one episode a week. When we went to two episodes a week, we had an increase in like 70% in downloads. So we didn't double our downloads, but we almost doubled our downloads just by putting out one more episode a week.

[00:11:12] Hector: We continued to do that and that over time, in three months, we doubled our downloads. In another three months, we had doubled it again, so we had four X star downloads, and the only thing that we had done was move to two episodes a week. So that can really, really help if you wanna see some more movement, right?

[00:11:26] Hector: You wanna see some acceleration in it.

[00:11:28] Hector: so once again, just be okay adjusting your schedule. There's no right or wrong for any show. there's just finding what's right for.

[00:11:37] Hector: So hopefully that gives you guys some ideas and some thoughts because when I initially thought about rebranding, Someone came to me about, should I rebrand my show? I was like, wow, that's a big change. And it can be, and you can change everything and you can change the name, change the episode art, change the description, keep the same feed, and just keep on running, right?

[00:11:57] Hector: Nobody will know a thing. You can keep all of the subscribers, you keep all of the reviews, everything like that, and it's just a new show. And you can absolutely do that. But maybe that's not necessary. Maybe these small tweaks, these small adjustments, some of these small changes, maybe those can actually be the thing that you need because You don't need to throw the baby out with the bath water. Right. I think it's a terrible saying, But it's a very extreme example and something that I think conveys how silly it might be, right? Because you've already built something up.

[00:12:23] Hector: So unless you absolutely need to totally change the show, maybe just adjust one thing and maybe just tweak one thing and start there. So guys, I wanna thank you for sticking with me today. Hopefully this gave you some value. Hopefully this just sparked some thoughts and it sparked some ideas for you to be able to go out there and execute for yourself.

[00:12:43] Hector: If you have any questions, I wanna encourage you to come find me on LinkedIn, Hector Santhi, step on, come find me on Twitter at hector underscore podcast and let me know. Send me your questions and we're gonna try and. These solo episodes into more, questions that are coming from you guys as well. So I wanna thank you for being a part of the M Y P fam as always, and we'll see you on the next episode.