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A Bad Podcast Name Can Torpedo a Great Show · Your Mic

• 0:00
  Today on the show, we are talking about something that sounds small until it torpedoes your entire podcast and everything you have worked so hard for.
• 0:11
  We're talking about names, specifically the name of your podcast and why it might be the single biggest reason nobody is clicking play.
• 0:24
  Welcome back to your mic.
• 0:25
  My name is Freddy Cruz, founder of Speak Podcasting.
• 0:29
  If you're looking to launch a show or rebrand it, grab the official Speak Podcasting roadmap at speakpodcasting.com slash free resources.
• 0:39
  Now, before we get to names, let's back up and give you the inspiration behind this episode because the full story, the inspo, it's too good not to share them.
• 0:49
  If you know me, you know my favorite podcast is called Moonshots, and they were breaking down this genuine medical breakthrough.
• 0:57
  Moderna and Merck ran a phase three trial for an mRNA vaccine, personalized, built off a patient's own tumor, paired with Keytruda, tested over a thousand melanoma patients, and it worked.
• 1:12
  Reduced recurrence, reduced spread.
• 1:15
  And that's the kind of headline that changes oncology for the next decade, possibly longer.
• 1:21
  And then they named it...
• 1:23
  In Tizmaran, now, here's where it gets good, or bad, depending on how you look at it.
• 1:30
  One of the hosts of Moonshots, his name is Alex Wiesner Gross, he does what any curious, slightly ruthless mind does.
• 1:37
  He goes and looks up the word, and it turns out, in Tizmaran, traces back to a Turkish root, is Tizmar.
• 1:46
  And is Tizmar means, wait for it,
• 1:50
  exploitation.
• 1:52
  So, somewhere in a boardroom, a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical partnership signed off on naming their miracle drug after the concept of taking advantage of people.
• 2:04
  They were half joking on the show, saying maybe Moderna and Merck might want to consider a rename before the rest of the world figures out what they just did.
• 2:12
  But underneath the joke is a real lesson.
• 2:16
  And it's the same lesson I want to beat into your head, proverbially speaking, not literally, about your podcast.
• 2:24
  Because here's the thing.
• 2:26
  The science behind that drug, Entis Moran, it's flawless.
• 2:32
  The trial design, the results, the execution, hello, saving people from cancer.
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  All of it is genuinely impressive work.
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  It doesn't even matter.
• 2:40
  The name is the front door.
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  And if the front door looks like it leads to a scam, guess what?
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  Nobody, and I mean nobody, is walking through it to see the beautiful house you built inside.
• 2:55
  That's your podcast.
• 2:56
  That's every single one of you listening right now who's sitting on a genuinely good idea, a sharp angle, guests who make other posts jealous, content that could actually convert listeners into fans, fans into an audience, and an audience that buys your stuff.
• 3:15
  and then you slap a name on it, that means nothing.
• 3:18
  Sounds like everything else in your category, or worse, means something you never intended it to mean.
• 3:25
  First impressions are not a nice to have in this business, in any business.
• 3:30
  They're the whole business.
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  Nobody sticks around to find out your content is great if your name already told them not to bother.
• 3:38
  So let's talk about what a good name actually does.
• 3:42
  Because I'm not just gonna sit here and tell you that it's possible the name of your podcast sucks.
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  I wanna show you the difference using shows I've actually worked on and continue to work on.
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  First one would be The Final Curtain Never Closes.
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  This is the podcast for the National Museum of Funeral History.
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  They are a speak client and I wanna sit with that name for a second, The Final Curtain Never Closes.
• 4:07
  Because it's actually doing three jobs at once.
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  It's telling you what industry you're in without being morbid about it.
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  It's got rhythm.
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  It's got a little poetry to it.
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  And this is the part that still gets me.
• 4:22
  I came up with that name, completely blind to the fact that the final curtain never closes is an actual phrase used inside the death care industry.
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  I wasn't quoting anybody.
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  I just happened to stumble into a phrase that already meant something to the exact audience we were creating the podcast for.
• 4:40
  Now, sometimes you do get lucky, but mostly a name like that works because it respects the subject instead of dodging it.
• 4:48
  Second one, let's talk about your breasts.
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  Not your breasts.
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  That's the podcast that we work with for The Rose.
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  This was a YouTube series for The Rose.
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  Survivors talking openly about early detection.
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  Real conversations, short run, but I want you to notice something.
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  That title never hides from its subject.
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  It doesn't soften it into something vague and forgettable like health matters or wellness talks.
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  It says exactly what the show is about, and it says it with the wink that makes you want to click instead of scroll past.
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  That's the ultimate marketing name for that kind of show because it turns an uncomfortable topic into an inviting one without losing an ounce of seriousness.
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  And the third one is the Maj Salon.
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  This is a show built around Mahjong.
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  And the name works because it's not trying to be clever for clever's sake.
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  A salon is a gathering place, a place where people talk, connect, and play.
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  Mahjong is played at a table with friends.
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  Put those two ideas together together.
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  And you've got a name that tells you exactly what happens in every episode before you've ever heard a single word.
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  Here's another example.
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  Banking on Integrity for Integrity Bank.
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  Another Speak client.
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  All of these examples are Speak podcasting clients.
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  And this one's almost unfair because the wordplay was sitting right there in the company's own name.
• 6:21
  But somebody had to actually see it and use it.
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  banking on is a phrase everybody already knows.
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  Pair it with a bank literally named Integrity Bank and you've got a title that's a complete sentence, a value statement, and a description of the show all in three words.
• 6:42
  Notice the pattern across all four of these client shows.
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  None of them are vague.
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  They're specific.
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  And every single one of them tells you what you're getting before you press play.
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  That is the bar.
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  And that's what you want to be building toward.
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  So here's the actual advice.
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  The thing that I want you to do after this episode is over.
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  I want you, if you are sitting on a podcast idea or if you've already launched in, you've got that nagging feeling your name is not pulling its weight.
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  Don't go ask your best friend.
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  Don't ask your spouse.
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  Don't ask your mom or your dad.
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  I love those people for you.
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  I'm glad you love them.
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  And I'm glad you trust them with their opinion.
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  But genuinely, they are constitutionally incapable of telling you your idea is weak.
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  They love you too much to be useful here.
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  Instead, do this.
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  Talk to your LLM, you know, AI.
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  Whatever you're using, ChatGPT, Claude, I love perplexity, the LLM, it doesn't matter.
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  What matters is how you talk to it.
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  Don't ask, hey, what do you think of this name?
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  Because that's an invitation for it to be nice to you.
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  Tell it explicitly.
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  Okay?
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  Do not placate me.
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  Do not bullshit me.
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  Give me the goods.
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  Spare no details.
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  Tell me exactly what's wrong with this name, what's forgettable about it, what it doesn't communicate, and whether anyone outside my own head would understand it in half a second.
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  Ask it to check for double meanings in other languages while you're at it because apparently even multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies looking to cure melanoma forget to do that.
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  And that is the framework.
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  objective, unemotional, brutally specific feedback from something that has no investment in protecting your feelings.
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  That's what you want before you print a logo, register a domain, or record episode one.
• 8:43
  And if you're already past episode one, well...
• 8:46
  At least it's not too late, and at least you're trying to course correct.
• 8:50
  So here's your mission this week.
• 8:53
  Say your podcast name out loud to a stranger, or better yet, run it through your LLM with the instructions I just gave you.
• 9:01
  If it survives that gauntlet, great.
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  You've got a name that can carry the weight of everything you're about to build.
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  If it does not survive, that is not failure.
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  No, no.
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  That is you catching the problem before Entis Moran catches you.
• 9:17
  And if you want some help figuring out not just the name, but the whole show around it, tap the link in the show notes for the official Speak Podcasting roadmap.
• 9:26
  It'll walk you from idea to launch without the guesswork.
• 9:30
  So grab it now, speakpodcasting.com slash free roadmap.
• 9:34
  Appreciate you listening.