#16 Podcast Titles and Social Media Engagement Redefined ft. Cheryl

In this episode, Sober Steve chats with Cheryl from *Teen Minds Redefined* about key strategies for growing your podcast. They explore finding the perfect podcast name, engaging effectively on social media, and making meaningful connections with listeners. Cheryl shares the highs and lows of her podcasting journey, while Steve provides practical tips on optimizing her show for greater reach and engagement. This episode is packed with valuable insights and actionable advice for any podcaster looking to expand their impact.

- Finding Your Perfect Podcast Name: Tips for choosing a title that resonates.
- Effective Social Media Engagement: How to use social platforms to grow your audience.
- Deep Listener Connections: Strategies to connect on a deeper level with your audience.
- Cheryl's Podcasting Journey: Insights from Cheryl's experiences and challenges.
- Actionable Growth Tips: Practical steps to enhance your show's reach.

For a free consultation on how to launch or grow your podcast, visit www.sobersteve.com today!

Check out Cheryl over at Teen Minds Redefined HERE!

Transcript

Steve: 0:00

Hey there, podcasting badasses. It's your host sober Steve, the podcast guy, and I am psyched to share my discussion with Cheryl with you today. I had an amazing time talking to her. She has a bad-ass podcast or dedicated to helping parents of teens with her show. But struggles with downloads and social media engagement. And our discussion. We're going to work on a way she can fall in love with the name of her podcast, as well as finding the balance between having a strong and manageable social media presence that encourages engagement with your listeners. Before we head on over to this exciting interview, that's going to help podcasters, whether you have been podcasting for years or are just getting started. I want to make sure that you are going to take a moment to hit follow wherever you're listening right now, if you haven't already. So you get these new episodes when they come out every single Monday. There is a lots of great content in the pipeline right now that you won't want to miss. And you can also head on over to sober steve.com. If you want to join me on the show for a brainstorming or tune up of your own. So whether you are looking to start a show or grow and monetize a show, Head on over to sober steve.com. And sign up for a free one-on-one where we can talk about your chance to be on podcasting. Bad-ass. Until then though, enjoy this great conversation with Cheryl. Hey there, podcasting badasses. It's Steve here with Cheryl from the podcast Teen Minds Redefined. Welcome, Cheryl.

Cheryl: 1:27

Thank you. I am so excited, Steve. It's great to be here.

Steve: 1:31

Yeah we can jump right into it then with your podcast about Teen Minds Redefined. What is the podcast about? What's your kind of like little 30 second commercial you give people when they ask what it is?

Cheryl: 1:43

Yeah, it started off as just like band aid solutions for parents having issues with their teens But it turns out it's not them. It's you and so it's helping parents Work on their inner work and get that stuff done, get their shit out of the way so that they can have a relationship with their teens and set some really good examples. And the good thing is, when it's us and not them, it's under our control. We get to fix it.

Steve: 2:08

That is excellent. And sounds like it's a much needed discussion that parents need to be hearing. So tell me what your favorite part of your podcasting journey so far has been.

Cheryl: 2:18

Oh my gosh. I think just meeting people the map behind you is a push pin So i'm just putting there everywhere from people I meet from all over the world and do a podcast with And those relationships and connections. I noticed this when I started podcasting. It's almost like i'm not recording I'm just having this awesome conversation with someone who knows some stuff that can help the people I work with and, I always learn something and we always have a laugh and it's just so much fun. I could just do it 24 7.

Steve: 2:50

Yeah, I can understand. That's why I do it now, either helping with my own or with other people doing it 24 7 because I love Podcasting, like the art of it and the connections that you make. Because for me, it was huge. Every podcast I've ever had, no matter what industry I was working in or whatever hobby I was exploring, it's always provided this built in community that I never existed before, and it's always wider than you can find in your own backyard. So I definitely hear you on that for sure. And what would you say has been the biggest headache or least favorite part of this journey for you?

Cheryl: 3:21

You know what, I think the tech part and the whole, the analytics and the downloads and. I think things are going great and amazing and people are getting feedback from people I know and always listen. And then you look in like the downloads are like what's happening? I have no idea what's going on here. So that's, I think the biggest frustration is really more. Getting out there, getting big reach and getting some downloads.

Steve: 3:45

Yeah we can definitely then talk about some ways to increase downloads today so

Cheryl: 3:51

with

Steve: 3:53

I'm talking about your title of the podcast. Has that been the title since the beginning?

Cheryl: 3:58

It has. And I just added the tagline just recently. It was just, I'm actually not in love with the title.

Steve: 4:06

Yeah.

Cheryl: 4:07

However, I thought that the tagline now clarified who I was talking to without having to redo all the art, all the everything that I just didn't have the energy to start. I thought maybe if I just do one little thing instead of, and I changed the description at the same time, just a few weeks ago.

Steve: 4:26

So I'm

Cheryl: 4:26

thinking I don't want to do 10 things and not know what works and what doesn't work. But yeah, not in love with the name, but I'm just feeling like maybe I should stick to it because I don't have anything else that lights me up yet.

Steve: 4:39

Okay. Let's talk about that a little bit deeper if you don't mind. So you have this amazing description right now. It was one of the things I complimented you on. And it looks like with it, I would say that you've done some studying of what keywords help with search engine optimization of things that people want to read when they're looking for podcasts. And I can see that for sure in the description. What I would be wondering is using amalgam of some of those bigger keywords. Is there a way that you could, in your mind, maybe almost do some sort of beautiful memory? You put them all up on a board and see how you might be able to rearrange them into. a new name that you do love because yeah, you should love like the name of your show. And I know from someone who started off with one of the worst podcast titles for SEO ever gay a, because it just searches a gay and it's not great. So like I've fixed it, but like part of fixing that was like, Yeah. Having to play it around and see all the other words that I could possibly use and move them around until I was like, the light bulb moment happened where I was like, that's the one. Yeah. But I'm really big on now that we're recording and with podcasting magic, this will come out sometime this summer, but right now in the summer now is the perfect time for you to. Get a little funky with your formula because listenership right now across the board is down with all of my clients and everyone's podcasts right now because it's summer break. The beauty of podcasting, even when you're showing up every single week, that is excellent. When people have that same routine every single week, even if you only have the 20 listeners or 30 listeners or whatever small number that you have, those people generally. Know that they're going to listen to you Thursday because that's the time that they are doing X, Y, Z, and you fit perfectly into their schedule. But right now everyone's lives are being disrupted for the summer between breaks and vacations and school out and everything like that. So with numbers already being a little funky anyway, it's a great chance to communicate to your listeners. Hey. I have some exciting news coming up. I've talked with a couple of professionals. I've done some research and it's going to blow your mind the way that we're going to completely rebrand coming out in September. So what it's going to look like real soon is that we're going to be having new artwork and maybe changing the name to XYZ once you're set on it. Tell them before you do it an episode or two in advance. And then let them know that these changes are coming so that more people can find the podcast who need to hear it. So they're getting excited as well. They're going to be all along for the ride so that they're not surprised or caught off guard, or even maybe miss your podcast altogether when the artwork changes overnight, but they're going to be excited being like, when is it going to show up with the new podcast art? Because they're in on these big changes that you're doing to help you grow. If they're listening actively right now. And if they're listening later on, it was just going to be like, that will make sense for them as they're listening through your backlog as to why things shifted a little bit in some of your verbiage. That makes

Cheryl: 7:40

so much sense. Yeah. Timing wise, you're right. Timing wise, because my downloads are, I wouldn't notice if there's less or more because there's not enough. But yeah, that makes sense too. Summer and I should know that teacher. So yeah, you're right. I think that makes so much sense to do that and just take the keywords out of my description is what you're saying and just float them around

Steve: 8:02

I love that. You want to keep that it's for parents. Parents should definitely be in the entire title. If it's for teen parents, you want to have teens, the word teens in the title. But I also think that as much as real talk sounds bad ass and like with my podcast title, I love it when you use a cool adjective at the end of the day, I would love in the title for you to have a clear idea of what type of real talk to expect. So it could be, real talk with parents. About teen sex, mental health, or however you're making this word art together. But I would include, because you have who it's for, but I would love to know even reading Teen Minds Redefined, Real Talk just with that, I'm wondering, so what type of Real Talk is it? Is it You know, about parenting, specifically the parenting styles. It sounds to me like when you're talking about it, it's more about helping the parents through these issues as well. So maybe that it's not necessarily about the teens, but help put in there something along the lines of helping parents or guiding parents through tough situations with your teens about X, Y, Z keywords. Make that all sound nice in a title, but move all those words around. But at the end of the day, you're going to move them around and all of a sudden something's going to click. You're like, it has six words that are going to be exactly what people are searching in their search bar when they're looking for your podcast, because that's how you want to be in the mind. I would bet as a podcast creator, you also listen to a handful of podcasts.

Cheryl: 9:34

A kajillion.

Steve: 9:35

So think about like when you're looking for a new podcast, the type of words that you search to find that podcast and put yourself in your listener's shoes and think when they're looking for me, how are like, what are they looking for? What words are they looking for? And make sure that those are the words that are in your title, because as great it is to have them in your description and how important it is. It's even more important to have them in your title because the title. ranks above the show notes in the episode descriptions and show descriptions, so the title beats everything with that.

Cheryl: 10:07

Okay. Beautiful. I love it.

Steve: 10:09

All right. And going into further ways to grow it. I feel like working on things like the cover art and the branding and the color is gonna be excellent for the summer because you can then when things are September, go back into routines, people can fall in love with you and your numbers can boom and explode. Now, when they boom and explode, and people start getting involved and engaged with your content, what is your social media strategy or plan look like right now?

Cheryl: 10:37

So I do, I launch every Wednesday morning and from Wednesday to the following Tuesday, I do three or four clips across the board, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok. And I post them at whatever time they tell me to post them. ahead of time. So I do, yeah, I'll do once a day, but I'll do three clips in each, in each platform.

Steve: 11:02

Okay. And when I love a good auto poster and scheduler, it makes life so much easier when the content is released. How do you engage with your audience with it? Do you have one of those that's your favorite where you play like with your people on it? Or do you have one that's your go to that you spend your time on?

Cheryl: 11:25

I would say Instagram and Facebook are probably, I'm just learning Tik TOK and just playing with it right now. And I keep getting these emails that I'm getting this great reach, but I don't see comments So i'm so there's obviously a lack of engagement to answer your question. I'm not engaging except thank you or yes or whatever but Yeah. So that's a problem.

Steve: 11:47

I would definitely say that it's a way to grow because it's not always true that your social media followers become your listeners. And it's not always true that your listeners become your social media followers. Sometimes you find yourself with, there's overlap for sure, but occasionally they are two different audiences, which took me a while to wrap my mind around that. I had some people who followed me, but didn't listen to me and some people that listened to me, but. Don't follow me because they don't do social media. It's not their thing. It's not that they're choosing to purposely not follow me, but it's, I have listeners who don't do social media and then I have social media people who don't listen to podcasts. But there is certainly a correlation where the more that I'm engaging, the with my listeners or people that are commenting with my posts that works better. I have to admit that I did like when I was doing my little research in advance, I did notice that when people do like your content, you're posting regular content and you are getting some likes and hearts and comments. But what I noticed about the comments was that they didn't have any likes or hearts from you or comments of thank you or Any sort of interaction with the people. And I know that's not intentional because all we want from podcasting is to get in touch with our people. And when people are saying, I like your stuff, we want to say thank you, or tell me more, or let's connect or I'm sure that when I pointed that out, that probably broke your heart a

Cheryl: 13:12

little bit. Yeah. Just a little. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Steve: 13:16

But that is especially what I say is like one of the things we have to be very careful for when we're automatically posting to multiple different platforms is that if you're posting to those multiple different platforms, you should be at least have one where your listeners know, if you follow me on this one platform, I promise I will play with you like I promise I will like I will always like mine I say in each episode, like on my Instagram is At gay podcasts like I do for the one show. I was like, and you can find me on others, if you want to connect, that's the place that I would recommend. And so like people, I still have people that will find me on other ones, but my listeners know from me talking about at the end of my call to action. So like how to find a phone, they know that If they comment on TikTok and they're listening to this show they'll know oh it's because Steve talks at the end of his show sometimes about how TikTok makes him confused and feel really old. But when your listeners know that and your listeners know that your place is Facebook, that's home for you. If they know Cheryl's home is Facebook, so I'm going to connect with Cheryl there. Wherever it is that you choose, but choose the one or two that, you know, where you're home, but make sure that then you're paying the extra attention to them. Okay. And then the other ones, even if it is once a week, when you're doing your scheduling and auto posting that you review the previous week's comments and content and make sure that you like, and didn't miss anything later in the, like the beast, the B ones, tikTok and stuff like that. But if you are telling your people, I will promise I will play with you on social media. If you find me here, like you need to, if they are liking commenting be within, I would say 24 hours because If that is someone who just saw your video, one, one story that like, I love to tell to help illustrate the point. It's I had someone once that posted about, or they made a comment about an episode that I did recently about someone. And I commented or I shared their post with a comment or did something that they did recently. And then we ended up chatting and it ends up that they never listened to an episode, but they loved my post. And the fact that I commented right away, started a conversation in our DMS, and then they went and downloaded. My, at the time, 180 episodes, I have a new listener who then was at the end of that guests that they found that they fell in love with as well, they connected with them and had some sort of one on one. And he started working with them. So it's all the power of when someone engages in If you're able to jump in and engage with them because that's what we want and it's what they want and that builds the relationship that goes beyond just the one way podcasting listener that we're used to. So make sure you play on social media.

Cheryl: 15:48

I will do that. I will do that. First priority. Oh man, that's heartbreaking.

Steve: 15:56

As you are growing it other ways to then also I noticed growing your, social media, your Facebook seems like it's set up like a business page and I would do some more back end work maybe with setting it up with some descriptions like with your podcast and what you do. I noticed that the page itself had zero likes and zero reviews. So yeah, even if you invite all of your friends to like the page so that it's getting some likes or ask guests. I always ask guests and oh, this will be great to talk in a moment and we'll might go a little over if that's okay, but guests are also huge for growing your show and I love that you come from a method of expertise where you're the one guiding them and coaching them through. So you're keeping that expertise on you. But as you're sharing, as you're working with these guests, I would also try and communicate with them your dream. Method of how they would help support you on social media as well. Afterwards, it took me over 150 episodes to start asking my guests to leave me a review on Apple podcasts or my webpage or wherever it is that we connected. But if we have a great guest in connection, they can talk on what it's like working with me professionally just as much as any client can. And they should be doing it. If they want to be on the podcast, they should be leaving a review. Because I don't charge for my guesting, my guests aren't surprised when I ask for them to pay it forward in other ways. So I will say, hey, I'm going to be posting on X, Y, and Z date. I'm going to invite you to collaborate, hit accept, or when I share the story, if you can repost it, if you can leave me a review here, if you can do that, but I always have your kind of like little list of at the end of the, collaboration or during the collaboration, what your hopes would be if they like the content that you're posting and most guests are more than happy to do it. It's just that they don't know. How they can help you unless you're telling them how they can help you.

Cheryl: 17:51

Yeah. Good.

Steve: 17:53

I do

Cheryl: 17:54

have the odd one that will do that. Like in our, in, podcasting Facebook groups, if I have a guest who's a phenomenal guest, I will show that out for sure. And it's, and it is a reciprocal, but yeah, I don't specifically ask. So that's, yeah. That's very helpful.

Steve: 18:12

It is huge. I've learned like being able to just communicate what you want because these, like I said, they want to, it's oftentimes they're excited. The more you communicate with them about how they can help, they want to get involved. Cause they're so excited to be on the podcast. Take advantage of that. You both are winning then at that point, because then they get to share. It took me so long before I started when I do posting rather than just tagging on Instagram to invite them to collaborate because then. And not only goes on your wall, it goes on their wall forever. So anyone, whoever finds them as well can scroll through and find your episode as well. So there are ways to make sure that you're making sure that this exchange of having people come through your show, that you're not the only one winning that they are, but you both went together.

Cheryl: 18:53

So good. Gold nugget. Number 52.

Steve: 18:59

So with all of that right now, what would you say is your biggest takeaway from our conversation today?

Cheryl: 19:05

That I'm going to play around with the name for sure and not be afraid to do that change, especially, like you said, timing is everything and engaging. Like engaging, I just got goosebumps because I love my people, but I'm not showing the love at all. So that's really important. I love that. I love that. Yeah.

Steve: 19:25

Excellent. I'm excited to follow you and see how it goes and hope you follow us. A

Cheryl: 19:32

hundred percent. This has been gold. I really appreciate it. Oh my gosh. I can't wait for you to see the difference.

Steve: 19:39

Wonderful. Thank you very much then. And thank you listeners for tuning into another episode of podcasting badass. Make sure you follow. So you get new episodes every Monday. And as you heard here, leave a review, tell your friends, it's super important for the algorithms, making sure that people are finding this, need to grow their podcasts like a badass until then keep on podcasting.