How To Start A Second Podcast + Other Ideas For Pivoting Your Show

Jordan: 0:00

Every now and then podcast inspiration can strike and give you the best idea you've ever had. And once you have this amazing idea, it can be difficult to decide whether to create a second podcast, or quit the first podcast altogether and run with a new idea. Or maybe integrate it into your current podcast, or what if you rebrand your current podcast? There's just so many possibilities. I'm Jordan, host of Podcasting Q&A, where we answer your questions about how to start, grow and monetize a podcast. This week's question is from Kelly.

Kelly: 0:39

Hello, this is Kelly McWilliams from this versus that wedding decisions with Kelly McWilliams. I just finished recently season three of my first podcast. In the meantime, I've come up with a second podcast idea that I think will actually do even better than my original. My question is in two part one, how can I best use my first and original podcasts to make a success of my second podcast? They're within the same industry and going to be the same listenership. Second, should I continue having both podcasts if the new one does so much better than the original? Like, I'm totally open to keeping both going. But what I do better just having the one and putting all of my focus there. Thank you so much.

Jordan: 1:31

Great question, Kelly. To help me answer it. I've invited Baader Milligan, who you might recognize from the Buzzsprout YouTube channel, and is a host of the short box podcast. Father, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Badr: 1:43

Jordan, it is my pleasure to be here. Thank you so much.

Jordan: 1:45

Kelly's question, I'm actually very excited about this question, because you can sense in her voice the excitement at this new idea. Like you can tell she's really sitting on something good. So I think we can start out with her first question, which is basically, how can she leverage her current podcast to make the new podcast successful? Honestly, the fact that her podcast is the same topic and the same listenership is a huge advantage to leveraging your current podcast.

Badr: 2:13

Yeah, so first of all, congrats to Kelly. I mean, that's, it's a lot of work to just do one podcast, but to also be able to say, like, you know, you've been so successful, the first one that, you know, you're thinking about spinning off, or even launching a second one, there's not a lot of podcasters out there that can they can claim that. So, you know, congratulations to Kelly, that's, that's awesome. So I would say that, I think she's in a in a really good position, like you were saying, you know, if her two podcasts are dealing with the same industry, you know, I think it's safe to assume it's gonna have very similar audiences. And I'd almost say like, you know, I would recommend that she uses her first show. And maybe even the second one right for like, I think there's a lot of branding and marketing opportunities, especially since both shows are going to be aimed at the same like target audience. And I would almost encourage her to add, she's building the hype and getting the word out for the second one, to possibly, you know, promote herself, right. Like, this is a big deal like you spinning off, she's kind of like grunt won't say, I think a network is far too early to say right now. But having two podcasts that are in sync, I think gives you a lot of really cool branding and marketing opportunities. And I think if she was to promote herself by, say, like running an ad, and her first podcast to promote the new one, you know, something along the lines of like, Hey, if you enjoy this show, and me talking about, you know, the wedding industry, then you'll enjoy my new show where I really dive into, you know, this nuance are this topic here. I think there's a great way of having that synergy. And like using both shows to feed into one another.

Jordan: 3:43

Yeah, I completely agree with you. And I think that this is maybe even a good opportunity for using something like dynamic content insertion, such as like what Yes, Buzzsprout has, where you can do a promotion at the beginning of your episode dynamically inserted into all of your previous episodes, especially if your contents evergreen, and you might have listeners, going back to like some of your first episodes, create a promo saying, Hey, if you love this, definitely go check out this new podcast, I've done something like that, and then dynamically inserted into all of your back catalogue so that anyone who is a new listener, or just getting caught up on your older episodes, is able to hear that announcement prior to doing a baked in promotion, maybe in the intro or housekeeping section of your latest episode. So I think that that is a really good option.

Badr: 4:34

Well said, and that is a excellent suggestion, because it saves. It's like working smarter, right? Like, it sounds like you know, she's been doing it for a while. So I'm gonna assume she's got a lot of back catalogue episodes. So it's an opportunity to use that back catalogue to promote like this, this new thing, right? Whether an episode has been a year old or two years old, you still can use that as a means to communicate this new thing that you got going on, because you never know where someone might start. You know, there's folks that's or at the newest episode, they might go to a specific one because you had a guest or a topic. And then there's the outliers who start from episode one and there goes work all the way up. I think that's your point, leveraging, you know, automatic ads, you know, the dynamic ads you make like to spread that announcement out is a great idea.

Jordan: 5:19

Something else that she talked about, she did briefly mention, I just finished my third season of this podcast, right? Impressive. Yeah. And then she has an idea for a second thing. And what kind of came to mind for me is if it's the same topic, and the same listenership, this could be a really good opportunity for a rebrand of your current podcast. So maybe start season four, with a rebrand and you can do an announcement, we actually have a Buzzsprout video and a blog about how to rebrand your podcast. Buzzsprout has done it successfully, we went from five minute Mondays to Podcasting Q&A, which was the smart thing for us to do. Because by Mondays didn't make any sense. But there is an opportunity here for rebrand, especially in between seasons, and you could drop an episode saying like, I'm actually going to be pivoting my podcast to this topic, and you know, changing up the name changing up the premise of the podcast, but you're gonna love it, because it's still about this topic that you enjoy.

Badr: 6:28

Exactly. Yeah, I don't think your audience would get annoyed by that, like, by you, like, kind of, like hammering in that announcement, and really sharing that and pushing that because it sounds like you know, three seasons, and you've seen enough success to launch a second one, I think they would want to hear like more. I mean, clearly, you know, going by, by what we know, so far, I think safe to assume her listeners would want more of what she's providing.

Jordan: 6:55

All right. So the second part of her question is basically saying, Should I continue having both or just focus on the better idea? And that's the whole thing is you you get this sense from her, that she's so excited that she's like, Oh, should I continue with the old one, or go with the better new one? And so I kind of feel like this answers the question for her.

Badr: 7:18

My immediate thought, as someone who has recently, I think last year is when we when I launched a second podcast, but that one was just more so for fun, right? I don't have a Patreon attached to it, or a lot of like, risk or responsibility. Like, it's just for fun, it's completely different thing. And this question kind of resonates with me, it's got me thinking a lot about, you know, my own, you know, situation. And what I'll share is, I think, at the moment, I would advise sticking with both until it doesn't make doesn't make sense to have to, like if one is is at some point clearly outperforming the other, and there's more opportunity to grow or whether that'd be sponsorships or monetization or growing like the following. Then I say make that call down the line. But if if you've got it and you to run two shows, I say go for it. And don't cut the other one off until like, you've really kind of had a chance to gauge the interest and success of the second one, I do

Jordan: 8:10

see where you're coming from. And basically, she just needs to be aware of the considerations that you know, if you do have two podcasts, you're going to have to host to podcasts, you're going to have to dedicate time to to podcasts, you're gonna have to manage socials, for to podcasts, and try to monetize to podcasts. And it's almost like a separate thing. And so I think that's definitely something to consider. And my concern for her is that she's so excited about this new idea that it's like, palpable. And I'm kind of wondering if she's just gonna, like, run with it and be like, This is so much better. It's so fun. I'm enjoying this so much more that the current podcast she has might just kind of like fade into the background. So I'm kind of circling back to the idea of like, maybe a rebrand as opposed to doing a second podcast idea. But yeah, it's definitely something she's gonna have to consider is if she can tie in both. Can she make the new podcast idea actually, like maybe a segment or like a type of episode, there's podcasts that will do an episode every other week. And then, like, once a month, they have like a special episode or maybe once a week, they have a special episode that is a little bit different from their current format. So I wonder if she could do something like that, too.

Badr: 9:35

I like that. So you're basically suggesting maybe test the waters out instead of launching a full blown second podcast, kind of test the waters out and see like what the reception will be right like to your point whether and I really liked the rebrand angle, the more I'm thinking about it, that's a that's a pretty unique way. If there's a way to combine both concepts and ideas. I think a rebrand is a smart way to go. But if she's, you know, dedicated to launching a Second one, for whatever reason, I think you could kind of get a feelers out there by like, like you said, having a special spin off episode or, you know, like rebranding those episodes in a certain way, and gauging the interest there before really diving in. Because to your point, it's, you know, like I said, you know, running one podcast and seeing it succeed, especially for running three seasons. That's no small feat, you know, so think about all the work that you've probably already put in, in this first one. And now the thing that you've got to like, multiply, yeah, it's a, it's not a consideration, I would say take lightly. And you know, really kind of think about your passion and, and you know, if your heart's really in it, but I will say if to podcasts does make sense, I would highly advise really taking a look at your workflow, working smarter, right, like seeing how you can save yourself from doing double the work. And if maybe you can follow the same workflow or be able to, you know, batch record and stuff like that, I think if if you go to the to podcast route, you've really got to think about how you're going to approach doing the work for both.

Jordan: 11:01

You know, and speaking of working smarter, and not necessarily harder...you think about with podcasts how hard it is, to grow a podcast, and to get a podcast audience is brutal, sometimes, especially depending on your niche. So it's kind of like cutting the corner of finding another audience or trying to migrate your current audience over to this new podcast, if she were to somehow incorporate the new podcast idea as a bonus episode, like a weekly bonus episode, or monthly bonus episode or something like that. And then just slowly move into a rebrand direction or into another podcast direction, if she does decide to like split them off. But it's kind of nice, because you're just kind of like ushering your podcast audience into this new idea, as opposed to like trying to coax them to come with you over to this other channel.

Badr: 12:03

Agree. Yeah. And that's I couldn't imagine trying to convince my current audience for the short box to follow me into like the I mean, I'm kind of experiencing that. Now. Granted, it's like two separate subjects. But it's a lot more challenging than you think to retrain essentially, your listeners actions and like kind of routine, right? Like they're used to going to this particular feed that she got, listen to your episodes. I know like the show drops here to train them to also do like, you know, a second show or go in a different route. It can it can be challenging to your point. Yeah, absolutely. I would almost say what we've shared so far. I personally, really liked the idea of testing the waters with special episodes, and getting a feeler there and making that final judgment, whether you'd launch a second show based on that, see what the performance is on that kind of zip your big toe into the water and see like if it's worth going, adding more work, which you're already doing. I think going to rebrand route is a safe bet for now. Best of luck, Kelly and you know, once again, congratulations on success, regardless of what option you go, I think you're gonna do great.

Jordan: 13:11

Yeah, she's gonna nail it. Well, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Podcasting, Q&A. botter I appreciate you taking time out of your day to join me for this.

Badr: 13:21

This was awesome. Thank you so much, Jordan.

Jordan: 13:24

I hope this episode of Podcasting Q&A has been helpful to you. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on a future episode, go to podinbox.com/buzzsprout or click the link in the show notes to leave us an audio message. And as always, Keep podcasting.