What Reinventing Your Podcast Really Looks Like

0:05 Good morning podcasting Morning Chat. Today is Friday, October 17th, 2025 and today we're talking podcast burnout and the real decisions behind Sid Meadows full revamp. What changed, what didn't, and how you can rethink your podcast's future. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand, side of the screen and share it. However Clubhouse lets you. And if you're catching us via podcast or YouTube, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. Now give us about 30 seconds. We'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here.

1:20 Good morning again podcasting, morning chat. Thanks so much for being here. I am your host Mark Ronik and currently on stage with me we have my Co hosts Dr. Faye, Sid Meadows, Nick Nalback, producer Ashley Feller and Matt Bliss. We'll see who else from the cast and crew joins us this morning. Thank you for being here, team. And yeah, as I said at the top of the show, we're going to be talking with Sid because Sid has been sharing little bits and pieces with us over the past, I don't know, let's say month or two. Maybe, maybe not. We'll find out exactly. But we know he has been sharing bits and pieces about his journey with his podcast, specifically this revamping process he's been in. And I want to dig into that and also talk a little bit about where he was maybe or a year ago or so and what changed. I'll get into that in a minute.

2:16 I also want to remind you, I'm going to put a link in the chat here. And Ashley, if you want to pin it to the top of the room, feel free. If you're listening live right now, come join me around 8:00 AM. In about an hour, I'm going to be over on Chatter Social, the social audio app, the competitor I suppose to Clubhouse and my link isn't working, but I will get that to Ashley and she'll share it. So you can come join me there. We are talking all things, all things podcasting over there, a lot of new podcasters in that community and aspiring podcasters. So we're going to be talking about how do I know if my podcast idea is a good one? So come join us and contribute perhaps to the conversation if you feel so inclined.

3:05 Also, before we dig in with Sid and of course, also share our wins from the week, I wanted to let you know Dr. had been brainstorming with me this morning about an idea moving forward on the show where maybe once a week, if we can pull this off, once a week, we'll do podcast evaluations. And I know Dr. doesn't like that word evaluations. I'm sorry. DRDR prefers feedback and what this will be is we will accept podcast submissions. We'll also scour the Internet and social media to find other people looking for evaluations. That's basically how this all came to be because Dr. saw somebody posting on a social media thread looking for feedback on their podcast and she said, well, why don't we just all evaluate it for her?

4:00 So what we're going to do is probably I'm going to work with the team and ask people to listen to the show, provide a couple pieces of feedback, particularly if there were particular specific clips from the show that we want to play and talk about. That's kind of the idea. We'll also talk about other things like the name of the podcast, their cover art, etcetera. But we'll also dig into the show itself and provide constructive criticism, positive feedback, etcetera. Matt Bliss, you you agree. You you prefer evaluation as the word to use. Good morning. I don't think the word matters. I think the intention matters.

4:41 And just to say, I put that I liked, I thought evaluation was a good word and I, I reckon a score sheet would be a good idea for it too. Because feedback, there's a translation layer with feedback that we always forget about. If we get feedback, we're also taking that feedback and reprocessing it for ourselves. And for me, I'd rather get feedback from a lot of information that I get given and of course, understanding the bias that it comes from which. So if you had APMC score sheet that had like a bunch of things that you check against a lot in conversations, gave a score relative to other scores, maybe even get a leaderboard going and then give the person that score sheet as collective feedback from this community, then I think that's a really good idea because they can dismiss it, they can take it on board.

5:29 But really the feedback bit, if you ask for feedback, that's them doing the work for you. I think feedback from an evaluation, if you're doing the work, makes it actual constructive stuff. But this is my learning development background kicking in and I don't like to bring that. Here my big thing is that I just didn't want the word audit. Audit has a bad for a lot of people has a bad connotation. I immediately start thinking of me sitting at a tax office getting tax my tax audit. Completely get that. Me too. Evaluation I think is a positive connotation of audit. Absolutely. And I still like feedback because it's friendlier and it starts with an F I'm into alliteration, so. Because you want to call it.

6:13 Feedback Friday. Yeah, friendly feedback Friday. I think we'll actually get, my guess is we'll get more attention from people if we say we're doing podcast audits versus saying we'll give you feedback on your podcast and maybe not audits, but I'll say evaluation, we'll see. But anyway, the point is we're going to be doing that. So if this is of interest to you, you're welcome to message us through our website at podpage.com/PMC and give us a link to your podcast and any any other context that would help us along to do that evaluation. But that's what we will do. And we do have one already lined up.

6:54 So I will share that with the team and we will share more with you next week. Until then, I say let's dig into it because I do have to try to end this show a little before 8 if possible so that I can make it over on time to chatter. All right, so let's talk to Sid. Sid, good morning. Thank you for letting us break this down with you and taking on this ride with you. I appreciated it. And I think the best place to start is what I had mentioned a moment ago. You shared with us maybe a year or so ago, maybe a year and a half ago, but I feel like last year you were sharing that you were gearing up to end the series. So and, and of course, that podcast, Sid's podcast is called the Trend Report.

7:47 So let's start here, Sid, what changed your mind? Why did Why did you go from almost quitting to now doing a full revamp of your show? Good morning, everybody. Great to be here with you all. So you're, you're, you're right, about a year and a half ago, I was in a place with what I was doing with my business and a client that I was working for that I was heavily engaged with that a lot of things in my life, both personal and professional, felt really heavy. And I just needed to start giving up things in order to get my piece back, my sanity back. I knew I had to let things go. And you know, I thought my podcast was one of those. And in the middle of that season, I ghosted my community around August. I just maybe Sept, maybe it was July. I just quit creating content.

8:37 And so even though I'd said I would end it, I just kind of stopped. You could say iPod faded, but, you know, I was just overwhelmed with all the stuff going on in the business. And I just quit creating content. And so when that engagement ended, I had the opportunity to like, take a step back and, OK, what's important to me and what do I want to do? And there's some other aspects of this, but what do I want to do? And I always love my podcast. I thought when I announced I was going to end it, I thought maybe there was something else coming, maybe another podcast, maybe a broader audience. And I wasn't really sure, but I thought, OK, let's try something different, something new.

9:17 But then all this other stuff happened and I ghosted my community. And so when I decided to come back, I knew that during the course of this year, I needed to rebuild. I needed to nurture, I needed to reconnect with the people that were my loyal fans and loyal listeners. So I spent a lot of time doing that this year. Thank you, Sid. And I appreciate the back story. And I'm curious if there's a maybe some details there. In other words, why now like after all these years, what made this the right moment for a total overhaul? Or maybe was there a specific thing that happened that made you say, OK, I'm going from quitting to the full revamp? That's a really great question and and it's actually a bit of a bigger answer.

10:05 So I started my business in 2017 and I was 52 years old and that my 50s were really big highs, really big lows with COVID and you know, which is the reason I have my podcast and then OK business and then really great business and then OK business again. So it's been a bit of a roller coaster, which is the way an entrepreneur life is all about and that's what we live through on a regular basis. And as I getting ready to enter into 26 to get 2026 2020 6, I will be 60 in February. And so I'm asking, I started asking myself the question, what is it that I want my 60s to look like versus my 50s to look like? What do I want to do?

10:53 What's the impact I want to have? What's my business setup going to be? So I went to work and started planning out and writing business plans and customer personas. And then I looked at it and I thought, well, this is the same old, same old. There's nothing new here. There's nothing different here. Is this what you want to do? And like, I just was kind of stuck. So I called my coach. I have a business coach, same as Rex, and I called Rex and scheduled a session with him and he asked me some really profound questions. And through that, I realized what the things were that I wanted to do. The three, if you will, buckets of things I wanted to do in my podcast is one of those buckets.

11:36 And so I started digging in from there to like, OK, if I'm reinventing my business, I'm reinventing Sid. I'm I'm going to, I'm going to do something different in the my in my 60s. Then what do I want my podcast to be? What I've never done anything to it maybe tweaked here and there, but I never really did anything to it. So I said, what about my podcast to be? So I started digging in and that's the first bucket, if you will, the ones that I'm looking at that I really focused on and I'm almost finished with it. But that was the first bucket I focused on was what about my podcast to be? So I wanted to reinvent it and moving into 2026. Very cool and Sid, a lot of podcasters hit that same kind of wall that you've described I've been there too and I know we have other people right here right now in this community that have gone through something similar as well what advice would you give someone who's there right now thinking I think it's time to to quit it's.

12:39 A really good question. I think the first place I would start is what do you love doing? What do you love doing? What about your podcast do you love doing? For me, I love talking to people. I love connecting with people. A lot of people that I've interviewed have hired me to work with me. And to start with, what is it you love doing? And then also the same time, make a list of what it is that you hate doing. Like what part of it is that you don't find joy from. And then figure out how to do more of what you love and less of what you hate, whether that's outsourcing, changing the format, going live every day rather than trying to record things. There's so many options here. But look at what you love and look at what you hate, and try to do more of what you love and try to move some of the things that you hate into the love bucket. Thank you, Sid, great advice.

13:27 And I see some people are chiming in, in the chat as well. Nick says he hit it. He hit that wall and he's currently staring at it. And Nick, I know more of what goes on with you behind the scenes and I think you're currently just in a different phase. I think your creativity is being redirected in other play, two other places. You're experimenting a lot with AI these days and doing new things with it. In your case, I would say don't beat yourself up about it because I think it does kind of fit some of the advice that Sid was saying, which is gravitate to the things that you're passionate about that you're feeling and play with that for a little while. And I, I still think for Nick, and I guess I'll let you respond as well since I'm calling you out here. I think for you, there's a lot of content you could be making with all of the experimenting that you're doing right now. Do you want to respond at all?

14:27 I have no doubt that at some point I'm going to get back into content and all that. And I just, I don't know right now it's overwhelming. And I've, I've thought about the same thing, like a lot of stuff that I'm experimenting with in AI and what I'm doing. Like I feel like it could make really good content, especially with a lot of the new stuff coming out, and I just don't have the drive to make that kind of time. Right at this point. I'm like half giving myself the grace and being OK with that and then half like kicking myself in the butt in like you should make content. So I'm like, I'm just letting it do its thing. I like you mentioned and said mentioned just focusing on some of the stuff that will be the energy and just waiting for that drive of it to come back.

15:13 Yeah, that's fair. Thank you for sharing a little more there. Nick and I see Ralph in the chat says when you're ready to quit, he says to reconnect with your why in the 1st place and maybe find a more impactful why moving forward. Yeah, I think it's it's always important to reconnect with that why. And maybe sorry to use this word, Dr. maybe re evaluate your why if need be. And then let me read what Matt, I didn't pre read it. Let me see what? Well, Matt, do you want to share what you shared in the chat and then we'll get back to Sid? Well, only to say that this wall I think a lot of people hit, but I think podcast service providers in particular tend to hit that wall unless they're making content to help other podcast service providers and podcasters create content. There's like a metal loop in there that gets podcast service providers trapped, I think because they're so good at it. And I'm not calling out anyone specific here. And you know who you are.

16:16 The, the person I'm going to try and interview from Australia recently took over a Facebook group, an Australian one. And she's been very vocal about sharing her troubles with coming back to her own podcast, which was like 48 episodes in, I think. And yeah, I'm going to try and talk her through it and not get it to a solution. But I'd rather dig, you know, reflectively into why and try to help reason it out loud so that people can get an idea of what happens in the brain. And I think I've prodded her into doing it already. So nice. We'll see how that goes. So stay tuned for a future episode of Rethinking Podcasting by Matt Bliss.

16:58 OK, so Sid, once you made that decision to stay in the game, it sounds like you got really intentional about rethinking how you podcast. So let's get into the strategy side of things. What did that revamp process actually look like? How did you start really planning it all out, Sid? I've spent the year, like I said, rebuilding, reconnecting with my audience very intentionally. We talked about this yesterday, reaching out to people who comment or post or things of that nature about my podcast, people who text me. I've been very intentional about building relationships with them. And so the first thing I did was interview 20 listeners and I reached out to people.

17:41 I put a call to action in my podcast for to go to schedule time with me. And this was an idea that I got from Alex and Filippo, which was I interviewed my blisters and asked them five questions. I made a spreadsheet of their answers, really just getting feedback about the show. Some of them were about informing content, what do they like about the show, what areas could be make the show better for future listeners was the way I asked that question. And so I started there and I took all that and really started diving into understanding what it is that my listeners, why do they come? What do they want more of? And so I, we got really energized by that. And then from there, I, I dove into keywords and really understanding that. We talked about Courtney a couple of times as I listened to her podcast.

18:27 I was like, oh wow, this is something I've never thought of. So I dug into this whole keyword strategy and analyzed not just my podcast, but I also analyzed 10 competitors or people in the same same genre as me because I have the only podcast that is truly about office furniture. There are a lot of other podcasts that are in the industry, quote UN quote, that are about workplace design, workplace culture, sales, other things, but mine is strictly about the people of the office furniture industry. And so I leaned into that a little bit and trying to understand those keywords and I got the keywords all situated and then I started to continue to move forward from there. So I'll stop for a second if you want to ask me a follow up Mark. Yeah, Thank you.

19:12 And that's Courtney Elmer's podcast. I've just shared a link here on Clubhouse and you can also grab that in the show notes. So you said you reached out to 20 listeners, Sid, how did you know who those listeners are? Like how, how do you, because I think to some people compiling 20 actual listeners that they can reach out and touch, if you will, might feel like might feel impossible to them. So who are that? How did you connect with them? What was that process like? Yeah. So I keep a list. So what I do is I pay attention to the people that are commenting on my post about my podcast. I pay attention to the people that are re sharing my podcast on LinkedIn predominantly.

19:59 I pay attention to people who reach out to me directly, like I get text messages or phone. Calls or emails about the show, people thanking me or wow, that was a great episode. And then my my guest do a really good job at sharing with me when someone reaches out to them. So I have a very prime example, A guy that I interviewed a few months ago, I was just chatting with him one day on the phone. He goes, yeah, this lady reached out to me, said she heard me on your podcast and that she wanted to set up a meeting with me and the team to talk about her products. I'm like, man, that's fantastic. I said, who was it? So I went to LinkedIn and I found her. I sent her a connection request with a note that said, hey, thank you for reaching out to Walter. I really appreciate you being a part of the community. Thanks for listening to the podcast kind of thing. So I just keep a list.

20:48 And then when I got ready to do it and got everything situated, I just reached out to people and I didn't have a single person say no. Everybody that I asked to talk to me about the show said yes. And so many of them were so grateful for the opportunity to share with me, and I really appreciated that. So I keep up. Excuse me. Every time there's an interaction, I keep a list, a running list in my Google folder of people that I know that are listening. So if I need to, I can reach out to them. It goes for the same one in public places and people recognize me if they have a name badge, take a take a picture of their name badge. Then I come back and put them on my list. So I am. It's really hard to know who they are, but when they show you who they are, write. Write them down.

21:31 Capture them. I love that. Thank you. Practical advice and valuable as well. Thank you Sid and I, I want to stay here for a second because I did get a little bit more of the back story preparing to talk to Sid today. So you had also shared with me that you almost changed the name of the trend report as part of this revamp. What made you consider that? And then let's just start there. What made you consider that? It's also a really great question. So the name of the trend report came about in 2020 when I started it and I had a membership group at the same time where we talked about industry trends and about furniture trends, design trends.

22:14 I had about 200 people in that membership group, and that was in 2020. And we all know what happened in 2020. And so I'd already started the podcast. It was supposed to be kind of like an adjunct to the membership. And so I'd never changed it. And I just kept it the same for, you know, almost seven years now, or seven seasons. But the name has nothing to do with what the show is about because the shows evolved to be, you know, interviewing people and those kinds of things. And so I was brainstorming with my French Hat GPT about names and those kinds of things. I came up with a couple, actually bought a URL. And so I was like, I'm going to change the name. And it was actually a really good name too.

22:57 But then I also just started casually talking to more of my listeners and I mentioned the new name to a couple of them. And they're like, oh, but that doesn't roll off the tongue like the trend report does. Oh, well, the trend report is synonymous with you said, Oh, the trend report is your, is part of your brand. And I was like, had this aha moment of even though the trend report title doesn't help me with discovery, it is synonymous with who I am. And so I made the decision not to change the name, but then I dove into creating a tagline for the podcast and then really beefing up the description of the podcast.

23:42 So the tagline for the Trend Report podcast is now your inside look at the people, products and ideas shaping the future of workplace design. Workplace design is one of the strongest keywords that is searched on Apple podcast for discovery of podcasts like mine. So I'm doing some of that kind of stuff, but I just after talking to my listeners again, I was like, don't change it. So there you have it. Matt, would you like to share? I just saw you share something in the chat. Will you share it here? I said the description and name detail is a great revision and I'm still investigating this for myself. And just to share, my wife and I did a podcast about our move from Australia to Ireland in 2023 and we stopped it in September of 2023, but it's been growing at about like 1500 downloads a year since. So we've over doubled in the time that we've actually been inactive as a podcast.

24:44 And we called the podcast from my Home to yours. And then on a whim, I think probably halfway through 2024, I renamed it from my Home to Yours, an expat repat journey from Australia to Ireland. And I've got a feeling that that had a bit of an impact. So all that stuff you're talking about, super, the name and description and stuff, adding that clarity, but putting that clarity in the hands of people who might be clicking and selecting the podcast, I think that's a really good move. I think it really helps. Thank you. Matt and Sid, are you open to sharing the name you were going to go with? The name that I had settled on was inside Contract Interiors, which is also the name of my newsletter on LinkedIn, which I have over 1000 subscribers to that newsletter.

25:29 And so that then it was going to be a tie and I actually bought the URL inside contract interiors.com. Like I'm like ready to go the whole rebrand of it, which it makes sense. And if I was starting over, I would absolutely name it that. But the feedback from my listeners and my community was, oh, that doesn't roll out the tongue. Oh, that's, you know, the trend report is like so identifiable to you, Sid. Why do you want to change it? So that's when I said, OK, I'm not going to change it. Let's update the tab. Let's create A tag on. We never really had A tag on and. Let's update the description. This is where I want to ask all of you listening live right now.

26:10 I want to ask you a question because we talked about this, right? We talked before about naming your podcast something that's straightforward, something that is a searchable term, right? These are different tips, strategies to consider when you're naming a podcast and I really find it interesting. You know, where Sid said if I were starting over, I would change the name and I, I'll paraphrase, if his audience that he pulled said they like the name, he probably would have changed it. I think the name change is a better strategy as far as helping his podcast discoverability.

26:52 So my question to everybody is when do you think us as creators should prioritize our own vision, our own strategy over what the audience is telling us? Right. So I know this is kind of the opposite of the things that we talked about, you know, because we're constantly preaching, ask your audience what do they want? Or look at what you're what's trending with your audience and do more of that, right? So it's not that Sid necessarily did the wrong thing, but at the same time, we know that his strategy was solid to as far as considering the name change. So when do we prioritize our own interests, our own strategy, our own vision over what our audience wants? So I'm going to answer this question. You can go to Nick Mark.

27:38 A lot of this to me is just what does your gut tell you? What is it? How you feel about a name change, about a rebrand, changing your colors, whatever it is, What does your gut tell you? Because 99% of the time your gut is right. And you know, at the beginning, my gut was telling me to change the name for discoverability because one of my biggest goals is to grow the show. And that's because of my monetization strategy. But I want to grow the show. I'm stuck at 200 downloads per episode, which is really great, but I want to see it grow. And I'm, as I get my sponsors on board, I know they're going to want to see it grow too. And so that was part of the reason behind it. But then as I started getting the feedback, excuse me for my listeners about the name change, my gut had a different feeling.

28:23 It was like, OK, it's this is not the time to change the name. Dude, you're seven seasons into this almost and people know you. They know the name of the show. There are 200 people that tune into the trend report every week. You got to lean into that. So that's my gut was the reason that I decided to stay with it. I like that advice. Let's go to Nick. And before we do, Nick, get ready because I just want to ask Ralph. Ralph, I see you're sharing in the chat and you are more than welcome. If you're available to come up on stage and share. I'm interested in what you're sharing and I don't feel comfortable always just reading everybody's answers in the chat. So if you'd like, come on up and join us. In the meantime, Nick, So what?

29:04 What's your feeling as far as when is it time to just listen to ourselves instead of always following what our audience wants us to do? I. Think in the situation like I was back and forth as you and Sid were talking about this, but I think as niche as Sid's podcast is being focused on the furniture industry, he has a good pulse on the industry as a whole. But then also I feel like it's a lot tighter of a knit community just outside of the podcast, just that industry as a whole. I feel like I, I get the feeling that a lot of people in that industry know each other and talk to each other.

29:46 And with not having like fully tapped that market, Sid's doing a lot in the way of word of mouth and building relationships and doing that kind of thing. So I don't think it's quite as important because people are going to throw a trend report out there in conversations with other people in the industry and they're telling them all, it's synonymous with Sid Meadows. So I, I kind of see keeping that name just because people are already talking about it. People are having conversation about it. They're having conversation with Sid about it. Where I would turn to possibly end up rebranding or changing the name is if they've gotten to the point since gotten to the point where he's kind of tapped out that market. He's.

30:32 Really can't grow the podcast beyond what it is with what he's got and he wants to expand. Then I would potentially consider a rebrand to start bringing in a newer, fresher audience that he's not familiar with what Sid's doing or the trend report or the furniture industry or sales. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like he still has room to grow in that and people are growing with him. And I think that that is a reason enough to keep the name the way that it is. Yeah, I'm tracking with you, Nick. Thank you. And Ralph has also joined us on stage. Ralph, thanks for taking the the bait.

31:14 And do you want to share a little bit because you did share, I think it was just yesterday, if not the day before, you did share with us that, Oh no, it was yesterday because you shared with us that you were relying a little too much on AI and you made that change. So it sounds like you've made other changes to your show recently. Yeah, back in April, I kept on. When I watched my show a couple years ago, it was just called Ask Ralph. The whole idea was it was going to be a daily business show to help small business people, you know, accomplish something. And what I found is that I was really leaning into my niche, which is a Christian finance show. And people kept saying, well, who's Ralph? Who's Ralph? I said, I've got to rebrand it. So I decided, and this wasn't easy because I built a lot of SEO under the air, scraf.

31:57 I've done a lot of work with it, but the show just wasn't growing. And I said, well, who am I really trying to reach and what am I trying to accomplish? So I rebranded it Financially Confident Christian because my goal was to make a Christian person more financially confident. But when I did that, now I'm hitting almost 10,000 downloads a month because now I'm leaning into a pain point. I'm leaning into what somebody's aspiring to do. And man, it is just been the best thing I ever did. But I kept pushing back against who's Ralph, who's Ralph? Because I was like, oh, I'm Ralph. And I guess it was a little bit of a ego trip for me too. But man, it has been super beneficial for me making that name change because now people can lean into it said, OK, I know what this shows for.

32:39 I know what the aspiration is. So I appreciate you letting me me share that because it was a tough decision and I end up launching 2 weekly shows after that. And I guess I learned from my mistake because I leaned into, OK, who am I trying to reach to? Who am I trying to reach? So I had another business show called Grit and Growth Business, which is all about the grit and trying to make your business grow. And then I do a weekly sermon show called Truth Unveiled where I compare current culture with biblical truth. But I've really leaned into the name because I think the name is so very important. Thank you, Ralph. Yes, I'm with you there and I see Matt Bliss is with you as well. He said the name changes spot on. No one knows what Ralph does, but if they're here for finance Christianity stuff, then it works.

33:26 And then he goes on to say, if only your name were quit were Christian, that that would be perfect, perfect play off of the name as well. But yes, I'm with you. I'm with Matt as well. Ralph. Thank you for sharing. I appreciate that. And we are talking here a little bit about being intentional, right, with our podcast names, etcetera. One of the biggest parts of your revamp that you shared with me, Sid, is the new monetization model because I know you actually never monetized the show directly, I should say. So let's unpack that next. I know you created different levels of sponsorship. Can you break that down for us?

34:10 Yeah, And so I do. Thank you, Mark. I do want to make one correction. I did have a sponsor for my show for 2 1/2 years, OK? There was only one sponsor. They were title sponsor. And it was a great relationship. And then it was just naturally time for that relationship to end because not everything lasts forever. And so for probably 2 years now I've been maybe even longer, I've been doing it on my own, which is great. I don't mind it. But as you all know, creating a podcast is not cheap. And so it costs money to do things. And so after I spent the time rebuilding my audience and rebuilding my connection, that audience, I'm like, OK, now is the time to lean into Season 7 with a monetization strategy. And so I sat down and started brainstorming again with my friend ChatGPT and I uploaded my monetization plan from several years ago. I uploaded the contract that I had done and I had it asked me questions and I just started coming up with ideas. And so I landed on gold, silver and bronze as the types of sponsor.

35:12 I know those names are really boring, but just go with it. And so the gold is obviously the. And I have a goal with this. I have a financial goal with this that I'm trying to hit and to really turn my podcast into a true monetization strategy, a true income stream into my business because it is a business, I'm trying to turn it into that. So I have two gold sponsor opportunities. I have 6 silver and have 8 bronze. They each come with different things that you get where the gold sponsor pretty much gets everything on a gold platter, if you will, and including, you know, brand identity and things of that nature. So I have a whole checklist of things that you get.

35:53 I've actually pitched this to several different people. I have two sponsors lined up already, one in the bronze category, one in the silver category. And I talked to someone the other day just to brainstorm. It's like he's a, he's a big fan of the podcast. He also has a company that is, does really well. And I was, I said to him, Hey, this is not a pitch, but I'd like your feedback. Like if I were to pitch you, what do you think about these benefits that you would get as a gold sponsor? And before he even answered any of my questions, he said, please pitch me. Like please pitch me. So now I'm ready to pitch him because I finished the documentation last night. So I have a true strategy of what I want to do that have an entire list of companies that I want to reach out to you.

36:33 Because one of the things I have to be very cautious of is not, I can't have a product brand be a sponsor because it's a conflict of interest. I can't have a high end case good manufacturer be my my sponsor. And then I'm interviewing their direct competitor on the show. So I am only going to new non product neutral parties, a lot of technology, a lot of industry group kind of things. And So what my goal is, what was that 8/10/16 sponsors? I probably have a list of 20 companies and I feel really confident that I'm going to I'm going to reach my goal with this. I love that and I appreciate that you, you set your own boundaries, your own rules there around who you're going to accept as a sponsor and who isn't a good fit. I, I just want to call that out because I appreciate that. And I'm curious, can you share because I think this is invaluable information for a lot of people when you have these three tiers, what am I getting if I'm a gold sponsor versus a bronze?

37:41 Well, it's a pretty long list. OK, well, give us a couple. Of highlights that make shows show us the differences. So like the gold sponsor is going to get branding and visibility, which include their logo and tagline on the website and on our YouTube channel. The silver does not they they get a logo on the on the Both of them get a logo on our sponsor web page, which will be a new web page. They both get logo placement in our newsletter. They both get logo placement in our e-mail campaigns. The this is where it starts to separate. The gold sponsor gets a 15 second pre roll, like the trend report is probably sponsored by power podcasting, your go to source for blah blah, blah. So they get a 15 second and the silver does not, but the silver gets a mid roll mention.

38:30 So we'll have a break in the show. We're going to do a little interlude with music and kind of take a cute cue from some other podcasts, including Mel Robbins. We're going to take a short break now to hear a message from our sponsors and they'll be a quick little, hey, we'd like to thank our sponsors kind of thing in the mid roll as well. And then they get from an advertising perspective, the actual gold sponsor gets a 32nd ad that can run every other quarter for a full quarter. So they get 6 months worth of ads. It can be a host read ad or it can be they produced it. The gold sponsor gets a 32nd ad twice a year rather than once a quarter, but just twice a year and it'll run for a couple of months. There's some content features that the gold gets that the silver only gets one opportunity to contribute to a blog.

39:17 But the cool thing that I'm doing is is I'm redoing all of this. I'm going from every other week publication to a weekly publication now. And I'm adding a new segment called Hot Take, which is a 10 minute episode where me and a Co host hot take a question or something happening in the industry. Maybe it's a merger and acquisition that was announced. Me and the Co host hot take it the impact what's going on? And the gold sponsor gets to be a Co host twice throughout the course of the year. And the silver only gets to be a Co host one time. So and then the bronze doesn't get to it all. So there's some things like that that I think really separate. There's a huge price difference between the two, but. Remember I've said this many many times before as a podcaster, In my opinion, unless you're a Joe Rogan type podcaster, you cannot be financially successful with your show using the CPM rate and people paying you $0.10 for every thousand listens that you get. And so my podcast monetization strategy is about sponsorships. It's paid monthly.

40:23 If you're a gold, you're a 12 month commitment. If you're a silver, you're a 12 month commitment. If you're a bronze, then it's a six month commitment. So I'm asking them to commit to me, but I'm committing to resources to grow the show, to grow their visibility, and to give them a spotlight inside of my content. Thank you, Sid. And notice how Sid is offering more than just placement on the podcast. He's he, he's got this monetization strategy. And we, we framed it As for his podcast. But as we've also talked about here before, this is more than a podcast. You have multiple streams, multiple options for a potential sponsor website.

41:08 Like Sid was saying newsletters, pre roll, mid rolls, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So I appreciate that Sid is really taking advantage of all the different ways that he can serve a potential sponsor. I do also want to say, Sid, you've talked about this before and we, we had a show around this or at least a heavily discussed topic around advertisements. And we've talked about Mel Robbins before and how her show starts with like 6 minutes of commercials. But then you just also mentioned how she she'll say we're going to take a short break for this message from our sponsors. My question to you is, what do you do when you hear her say that when you're listening to her show? Keep listening.

41:53 Do you? Because you've told. Me to skip before, I don't see so, so here's why. I have skipped before in the past and I know a lot of people's behavior is to skip, but usually when I'm listening to a podcast, my phone is in my back pocket and I'm on my walk and or I'm driving and the phone is in this little console carrier and I just don't want to reach for it to skip it. So I listen. But I'm not talking about like that, you know, that mid roll bomb. Hey, here we take a quick break for a message from our sponsors. Not going to be a 5 minute, you know, thing. It's going to be maybe a minute long depending on the number of sponsors and how it actually ends up being formatted.

42:33 But my behavior changed because my listening behavior changed. If I'm in my kitchen doing the dishes or just in my house walking around listening, I might skip the ad. But if I'm walking or driving I just let the ad play as even even in the now in for Mel Robbins, even in the beginning I actually will take my phone out of my pocket to skip the 1st 6 minutes of her show because it's too freaking long. If it were a minute it'd be a different story. I'd leave my phone in my pocket. OK, Fairpoints. And my suggestion is to make the make that transition from show content to sponsorship content, make it short and sweet.

43:17 I don't even know if you want to say all of what you just shared. You would say, I think playing like a quick sound effect, a quick, a quick, we'll be right back. But I don't want to give people any more time than possible to pull out that phone and hit that skip button. Matt, did you want to comment? Oh, and we'll go to Matt after you respond, Sid. So one of the things that I really like about Mel Robbins mid roll ad shout out that she does, it's too long, but that's OK. But one of the things she does, he says, we're going to take a quick break for a hear a word from our sponsors who really help us produce this show. And then she talks to me for just a hot 2nd and says, Hey, if you're getting a lot of value out of this, you know, someone that can hear need this message today or want to hear this conversation, hit that share button and share it with them. Take a moment and share.

44:10 And I love that because you're at, it's a call to action where she's asking you, Hey, if you really like this right now, share it with somebody. So I kind of think that's important because I don't do enough of that inside of my show. I don't do enough of, hey, there's a send me a text button on my website where you can send me a text message. You know, there's going to be speak Piper, you can ask me. I don't do enough of that. And so I kind of want to be intentional about asking people because Matthew said it earlier or Nick said it earlier. I'm very intentional about the relationship that I'm building and asking people to share my show in person. I'm just not doing it on my show. Yeah. I relate to that. I don't do that enough here on the podcasting morning chat.

44:52 I get that, Matt. Did you want to respond? And then we got to start transitioning to sharing some wins from our weeks. But go for it, Matt. There's something that I think people in the podcast ad space like to talk about a lot, but that doesn't make its way out into the podcaster space really. And that's making an ad that people want to listen to. And I've had a few podcasts that I've experienced in the past where I enjoy it. It's banter. It's a bit of entertainment. You know, you listen to one of the biggest video game discussion podcasts released weekly and you've got two of the hosts bantering about blue pills for whatever reason they might exist, and they just have a banter about it and you enjoy it. I think that's something you can step over with the content as well.

45:42 Now, this may or may not be advice for you, Sid, but it's not just about how seamless or how much of a chance that transition is for someone to resolve to their usual skip this ad kind of behavior, but instead make it content for the show. And then they don't skip it because if they don't listen to the ad, they're actually they're missing out. Now, this doesn't suit every single show. And if your sponsor has nothing to do with, you know, this, this is where the CPMS versus sponsorship partnership argument kind of comes back in again. But making ads enjoyable, I think is a really good way to do it.

46:27 And I've tried to kind of straddle that with my podcast as well. I have an affiliate with Brain dot FM that does kind of like chill music. That's been trained to allow you to focus. So when I wrote the ad, I tried to make it as kind of focusing and chill as possible when I put it together. So someone might listen to it and go, oh, that's a nice break from the content. And now we're back into it. And I do outline that a little bit, but you know, I don't think there's any rules with it. I think if you if you make the ads content, I think that can be a good a neat way to avoid the discussion about whether someone will skip it or giving them an opportunity. Fully on board with that, Matt.

47:10 I wholeheartedly agree. I've been a part of some very successful podcasts and one in particular that I'm thinking of what they do best is I don't want to skip their commercials. And I know their audience feels the same way because I mean, look, they'll even start their ads kind of traditionally, like, you know, this segment's brought to you by and they'll say the name, but the audience stays tuned in because you never know what they're going to say. They're always, it's a comedy pop culture podcast. So they're always incorporating, sorry, they're always incorporating their own personal stories, funny experiences, whatever.

47:51 So it, it is weaved into the fabric of the show and I think that can work really well. And yes, you're right, I don't think you can make that work for every type of show. But I think that there are creative ways to really make it part of the content and not just an insert. I'm with you there, Matt. We could go on and on. And we we got to do our wins from the week. So Sid, I will first say thank you for being our, I don't want to call it Guinea pig, but I can't think of a better word. So thanks for being our Guinea pig this morning and being the real life example of somebody who went from wanting to quit or feeling like it was time to quit to reevaluating and revamping the trend report. Your story, I think is a real reminder that podcasting involves and we do too.

48:45 So anyone who's listening, if you're, if you've been feeling like your show might be nearing the end, maybe it's not. Maybe it's time for a refresh like Sid. And you may want to check out his podcast. I know that he hasn't made the full official transition from the old to the new, but that's actually maybe a great time. Go check now. Go listen to some of his episodes, The Trend Report, to see how this all comes to life. And remember, also follow Sid on LinkedIn. I know he's on other platforms as well, and I know LinkedIn happens to be one of his primary social media sources. So check him out. Sid Meadows on LinkedIn and of course, his podcast. You can find it at sidmeadows.com/podcastso. Thank you, Sid.

49:33 Appreciate you. All right, let's do some wins from our week. We got to try to do this relatively quickly. I may even bounce if I have to based on timing because like I said, I have an 8:00 AM appointment over on Chatter. I'm going to share one win and it's a big, well, I don't want to say size it right. So it's a win that I'm very proud of. I got a text out of the blue yesterday from Chris Kremnitzos, KREM Itzos. I got to say his name right, The founder of Podfest. He wanted to hop on a call with me. We connected yesterday afternoon and had an awesome conversation. Chris told me that after attending Empowered Podcasting to this past September that he that he's fully behind what we're doing with EPC.

50:20 He offered, and I accepted to add an EPC meet up to the official Podfest lineup. So if you are going to Podfest, you're probably using their, the app, the Hoova app. Well, it's going to be listed as part of the schedule because he wants to really highlight what we're doing in our community. He also seemed pretty adamant that moving forward, he and Podfest are highlighting me as one of the community leaders and to spotlight EPC as a true community driven event moving forward, which is pretty amazing. And it's a real full circle moment for me because for so many years I've looked forward to establishing myself as an industry leader. And in many ways, I've always looked at myself that way, but felt that outside of our community that that wasn't really the case.

51:13 It wasn't really happening. So it's rewarding to see that my years of hard work and dedication are being recognized by some of the biggest events and communities in the industry. So yeah, that call left me feeling excited and encouraged about what's next for EPC, for our community and how it's being recognized in larger podcasting spaces. There's my win. I'm going to go to Ralph. Let's go to some of our guests on stage. I'm going to ask everyone share one win with us. Even if you have more, you can share the others in the chat if you'd like. So Ralph, share a win with us.

51:55 All right, my win for this week is I hit 30,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, so that was a big win for me. Absolutely. What a great win. Congratulations there, Ralph. And you want to just share the YouTube channel? Yes, it's truth unveiled with Ralph. There you go. Go check that out. Thank you, Ralph. Congratulations, Renee. Good morning. Welcome to the stage. Please share one win with us. We have our first meeting with Ironic marketing or Ironic media. Thank you. I don't I don't even know next week. And so we start our podcast journey and the name as of right now, but you can DM me if you hate it.

52:35 The wedding. The name is Wedding marketing Exposed and then the graphic, a word, a fourth word will cycle through and it'll be so it'll read, it'll be the fourth word will be shortcuts, trends, must do's, truths, something like that. So when you see it, it'll be wedding marketing exposed and then they'll be a fourth word in a different color. Just just going through as a as a graphic because we're starting on video and then we're moving into podcast. So our pillar piece of content is actually going to start video. And because wedding people are very visual, they need to see things. And then the tagline is most likely going to be pulling back the veil on wedding marketing. So that's a major step. But we are open to anybody tearing it apart. Please, you won't hurt our feelings, but that's where we are right now.

53:22 Awesome. Congratulations, Renee. I love the name. I do have thoughts and we'll we'll dig into them next week when we sit down and start preparing and planning your journey. Love it. Thank you, Renee, and I'll share that win with you. Yvonne. Good morning. Please share a win with us. Well, based on the afterglow of the Empowered Podcasting Conference, I signed up to go to another networking type event in New York City. I went this week to the Marvelous Misses Mazal, I'm sorry, Marvelous Misses Menopause event and met a lot of great people. And it was, it was all kind of coming off that same energy of going to the Empowered Podcasting Conference.

54:07 So thank you. You're welcome, and I'm going to share a win with you as well because that episode that you just put out recapping the Empowered Podcasting Conference really warmed my heart. I really enjoyed it and I appreciated you sharing everything about it, warts and all, about your experience there as both a volunteer and attendee. I appreciated that so much. Yvonne, thank you. And we'll put a link to that episode in the show notes. Mishawn, please share a win with us. And before you do, I'm just going to ask our moderators today if you want to share a win. If you don't mind, please share it in the chat just to help us with time this morning.

54:49 I would appreciate it. Mishawn, please share a win with us. Yes, my sister and I went to the Jane Austen Society of North America's annual meeting last week. We got one Oh my God, you're the Boston sisters. So someone we never met before listens to the podcast, and as a result, we also have two speaker invites for virtual presentations. Amazing. Congratulations, Mishawn, all sorts of wins to share and celebrate this this week. So congratulations to everybody. Thank you for sharing. And again, thank you to my Co hosts, moderators for skipping this week and hopefully put it in the in the chat.

55:31 And you know what, maybe it's been a long time. Let's put up a post in our Facebook empowered podcasting community to allow everybody to share their wins from this past week. And we are back Monday, 7:00 AM Eastern, as we are every Monday through Friday. Come join us. We're going to be talking all things podcasting content creation. We'd love to have you continue to be a part of this. So until Monday, make it a great weekend. Everybody take care. And thanks again to Sid.