The following is an excerpt from a book on podcasting I'm currently writing. Details re: its release are forthcoming.

One of the most important decisions you’ll make about your podcast is the show’s title. 

As we’ve discussed in the previous chapter, your show needs to be about you. So keep that in mind when you’re naming your podcast. 

Think about some well-known interview-based podcasts and the imagery that comes to your mind when you hear the title:

The Tim Ferriss Show

The Joe Rogan Experience

The Jordan Peterson Podcast

With Tim Ferriss, you know you’re going to get an extremely in-depth interview with a world-class expert on something of importance and relevance to our lives.

With Joe Rogan, you’re thinking more conservative politically and ideologically, but progressive in other areas. Oh, and he talks about UFC.

Jordan Peterson of course is well-known in his own right for his very unique take on important matters in Western culture.

What these gentlemen all have in common is their fame preceded their podcasts. Or better said, they all had some degree of notoriety before beginning a podcast. Their show was simply an extension of who they are and how they were known when they launched it.

If you’re reading this book, you’re perhaps not well-known outside of your immediate circle of influence, so you might feel you need to take a different angle when naming your show. 

This is not necessarily true. For in many ways, your podcast is going to be instrumental in you creating your own niche; i.e. a band of followers who are interested in you.

A mistake I’ve made myself, and have seen others make is to give their podcast a title that has very limited staying power, or worse it boxes them into a tiny subject from which it’s very difficult to get out if they stay in it long enough.

I’ve seen more than a few podcast titles that would make really good themes, or perhaps a title of a series within the bigger picture; but not necessarily a title for a show that has real longevity.

If Joe Johnson is starting a podcast, he can name it The Joe Johnson Show (or something close to it) and then within that show address various themes or interests.

I’ll give a personal example. As of this writing in Summer 2024, I recently launched a show titled Newcomb, With Love. In it I discuss things that are important to me personally, and which I know others are interested in. The topics discussed have been, but are not limited to, music, entrepreneurship, financial planning, unschooling, adaptogenic herbs, and the list continues to grow.

Now if I had titled it Trumpet Lessons with James Newcomb or something like that, I wouldn’t be able to discuss things like education or wellness. It would by necessity need to be about trumpet. But the logo of the podcast has my photo with me holding my trumpet. So the logo gives away that I’m a musician, but more importantly it gives away that I’m discussing things on the show that matter to me. 

I also have a cross that would be associated with the Orthodox Church. As an Orthodox Christian, that’s a topic that interests me, so it has a prominent position in the branding of the show.

I say this only as a point of reference in thinking up a name for your show. 

You want it to be about you, but in keeping with the theme of it not being “all about you” one must use wisdom.

There’s no right or wrong answer; all I can do here is give a bit of guidance and let you make the right decision for your own show. 

**For more info on the services I provide for people with podcasts, visit this link: https://podcastartistry.com 

Be well,

James