Not Joe Rogan? How to Create a Podcast Brand People Actually Want to Listen To

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We can’t all be Joe Rogan. And creating a podcast that people actually want to listen to can be difficult.

You need to find the right topic, have solid content, come up with a catchy title, and design a brand that successfully stands out.

“When done right, podcasts are an incredible tool for establishing long-term engagement with customers, surfacing the personalities within a business, and building a bond of trust through analysis, insight, and storytelling.” Harvard Business Review

In this blog post, I discuss how to create a podcast brand that will attract eyeballs and rise above the noise even if you’re not Joe Rogan

For example, what if you had a lifelong love of stories about overcoming adversity?

Kyle Miller is a dad, a husband, a successful entrepreneur, and a lover of life experiences that test one’s spirit. Recently, I helped Kyle, who was ready to start his own podcast, develop a brand to stand out in a strong way.

How would I craft a brand that would stand out in the noisy podcast universe?

Creating a Killer Podcast Brand

The problem with most podcasts is they’re thinking too small when naming and designing their podcast. They want to “get their voice out there” versus creating a movement.

In helping Kyle create this brand, I had to look at the space he wanted to enter: sharing stories of overcoming adversity.

The steps are straightforward:

Isolate who his audience was
Look at the amount of “noise” that existed amongst other podcasts
Find a distinct voice you can own that provides a different narrative than what’s already out there
Build out why his narrative mattered with all the podcasts competing for “ear time” in the pod-universe.
Based on that, establish a name that disrupts the existing chatter in your space, one that would excite your audience (based on smart homework to see what they’re already devouring)
This next step is the important part: build the brand like a lifestyle or a movement. Do not just treat your brand like “This is my version of what already has a gazillion options.”
Be the voice of your people that you are speaking to.
Be unapologetically bold and own the room.

The Joe Rogan Experience: Finding Your Voice

When it comes to podcasting, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is what to name your show.

The real test: did ours stand out amidst the overpopulation of names and the other noise out there?

After looking over the niche Kyle wanted to fill, we developed his story so the reason for the podcast was clear to others who would share Kyle’s journey:

With this brand narrative developed, this led us to developing a killer name and securing the killer domain: LifeontheRocks.com.

But I didn’t stop there.

When designing this, I looked at what would make this merchandise worthy. I used color, language, texture, and typographic style as tools to make this stand out.

And most notably, I used the element t of surprise and discovery.

So, I played with size and colors of the lettering in the design so at a distance you read one message: “Life Rocks.”

Yet as you got closer to the person, you’d discover the shirt and logo reads “Life on the Rocks” with the slogan, “Ordinary People. Extraordinary Odds.”

Joe Rogan does NOT have this cool a design

In developing the brand further, it was vital to make sure Kyle was an integral part of the brand visually so I developed this version of the brand identity that showed the podcast host:

I further made the brand “street friendly” with a collection of poster designs that showcased the brand identity and name plus an alternative “drinking age version” when the discussion would be done over ice and “on the rocks.”