What's In A Name? A Year-End, Re-Branding Special

Host:  Scott Leon Smith

Guest:  Abbey Kanellakis

Scott

Hello and welcome to BizVox, a podcast for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits.

We're here to help you build your knowledge to spur your productivity and have a few

laughs along the way. I'm Scott Leon Smith and I am your host, let's talk some shop.

The end of the year is upon us and I am here at the Bucyrus Little Theatre with my marketing

guru, Abbey Kanellakis. I spent two weeks in speech therapy to learn how to pronounce Abbey's name correctly. I hope she's proud of me. Are you proud of me, Abbey?

Abbey

I'm so proud.

Scott

We're going to, this is our last episode of the year, so it's our third episode of the podcast and already we're changing things up. So, we're going to allow you to set foot in the think tank of MonsterVox Productions, my company. We're going to come into the inner sanctum and we're going to talk about the terrifying concept of rebranding something.

So you think about all of this stuff, okay, how do we present this and then you think of a new idea and you're like, oh my God, we got to incorporate that somehow. How do we rebrand things?

So, welcome, Abbey.

Abbey

Well, thank you. I'm so delighted to be here.

Scott

You've got lots of ideas. We’ve got lots of ideas. So, I'm excited to share all this stuff with you now.

Abbey's been helping me with my marketing for the past few months and I really have to stress to our listeners the importance of knowing if and when you need to find a marketing consultant from personal experience. If you are a creative person who finds themselves all over the place in regard to marketing, motivation, and marketing consistency, like me, you need to seriously consider working with someone like Abbey who has the experience and who listens to all of your crazy ideas and provides some much-needed grounding, and perspective, and streamlining. And it helps me focus my creative efforts and not trap myself in this creative fervor where I have so many ideas and I don't know how to lash them down to something cohesive that's going to work or that has a good chance of working.

So, this relates to what we're talking about in this episode because we just started this BizVox podcast and, wouldn’t you know it, I just start having this uncontrollable brainstorm about all of the possible things that I know from my experience, from my training, from my education that I could create a podcast about all of these different topics that I could create specific podcasts for for acting, for Shakespeare, for voice performance. I have a comedy podcast that I started that I want to revamp and bring back and all of these things I say, well, I could create all these separate podcasts.

But then Abbey says, well, why don't you have one big podcast and make all of these things part of that big podcast, a variety podcast. So, I'm thinking, okay, well, I know. So we did our own brainstorming on the subject and we're going to talk about those ideas in this episode.

So our goal is to have each segment, I guess, or subcast of the podcast have its own unique flavor and voice, but still very clearly be related back to a big podcast idea. 

Abbey

That is reflective of your brand. 

Scott

That is reflective of the brand. We're always talking about branding. So Abbey talk to me, talk to us about the benefits of creating a quote unquote, quote air quotes, variety podcast with multiple segments.

Abbey

So there's a lot of, let's say, benefits and also drawbacks, I would say, so you really have to weigh the pros and cons. We just come out with BizVox It's an incredibly enlightening podcast.

You've had some, well, I say you've had some great guests, but as I've been at 50% of the

guests, yes. I was killing it.

Scott

You were.

Abbey

There's so much more that you can offer in terms of how it relates back to MonsterVox because this podcast should actually be representative of who you are and what you were trying to do.

So when we had first launched BizVox, it was, let's talk about the benefits of small business branding. Let's talk about how you have the expertise and everything that you've done and how you've worked with other creators to help voice that brand. What does that look like?

And so looking at your target market being small businesses, small-to mid-sized businesses, we thought the theme of BizVox would be right on. And I think that we are still into something there because I'm seeing some really great statistics that are showing people are listening, people are coming back, people are engaging. So we don't want to see that disapear, but we want to give you a platform where you can articulate some of the other things that you do as well. And I think if you look at it as though you're looking outside the box, so you have these parameters, brand tells you you have to stay within these confines, but how can you expand that while still maintaining those confines? And that's what we are trying to explore right now.

Scott

If you go in a different direction, so if we choose to rebrand and go in a different direction with BizVox, those people that are coming back, how might they react? 

Abbey

There might be a little bit of a startle. That's not what they signed up for initially, so they might be taken aback. But I think if it is positioned at the very beginning of each subcast that you do, how it goes into the fabric of this quilt that you're weaving. So I think it's very important to be completely transparent with your audience, whether they are tuning in for a Shakespeare lesson or they're tuning in for business insight and advice, because we can draw a connection between them and we can do so succinctly, but we have to be aware of that the entire time. So, as soon as they tune in, you are letting them know, we know why you're here and this is a could be a really great podcast for you for many different reasons. But if this is not something that you want or this is, you know, you're looking for more of a business swing or a comedy or whatever, you know, we can cater to that too. And here's some of the other categories that might interest you because we know that everybody has their own taste, their own way of receiving information. And this is just one of them. We are only giving them a piece of the greater iceberg and they'll be able to see more of that entire iceberg on your website because ultimately what we want to do is get them back there so they can discover all of the pieces that are MonsterVox.

Scott

Okay. Okay. So would you say that this sort of falls under the one stop shop blanket for your, well, and we can't, I can't give them everything. 

Abbey

You can't.

Scott

Podcast-wise, but I can give them an interesting variety of stuff that I know that I'm an expert of and that that can add to my brand. It can add to my services. It can add to, I guess, my cache as a personality maybe.

Abbey

Yeah, absolutely. Because all of those fractions come together to create who you are and to create what Monstervox is. So even though it seems a little bit scattered in terms of the various topics, it really all is coming together in a nice little package because it's very representative of your brand still. And we had talked previously about, you know, your connection with the Frankenstein monster.

Scott

Yes. Yes.

Abbey

And so that was one thing that I think itched both of our brains as we were kind of talking about this. MonsterVox being that Frankenstein's monster piece and how you are bringing all of these pieces together and stitching them together to create this finished product. And that's immediately what my brain went to when I started thinking about all of these other subcasts and how do you group them together and what does that look like? And I think it's very representative of what you're trying to do.

Scott

Awesome. Okay. So more on this in just a second. 

BizVox is your go to podcast for business inspiration. Follow us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe for fun bonus content and exclusives. Need some help with your business's podcast? Check out MonsterVox Productions.com for professional and affordable podcasting packages with free consultation. Small business, big voice. This is BizVox.

Scott

Okay. We're back and we're talking with Abbey Kanellakis about rebranding the BizVox podcast. So it stays in line with what my company, MonsterVox is all about. We're talking about what we might call a big MonsterVox variety podcast that would include BizVox as one of its segments. And I just googled variety podcasts just to find out who's doing this. And I'm going to talk about two of them. The first one is called the “Old Mole Variety Hour.” It is based out of a radio station, KBOO. I believe I can't remember where it is, but I was looking at their playlist and I noticed

that they have different segments. They have, they have a segment that's called the “Old Mole Variety Hour.” I guess that's their main cast, but there are different segments with different cover

art that say produced for the “Old Mole Variety Hour.” And those might be crop report podcasts. It might be somebody talking about crafts or something like that. So it's, it's very clear that they're segmented and it's made clear in the production of it that maybe it's a different host or a different producer, but it's all produced for this “Old Mole Variety Hour.” So, you can imagine that, well, it must be an hour-long episode with each of these segments included in those things. Now, we had talked about maybe, do you think that might work for the MonsterVox podcast, having these different segments? Or do you think, and we talked about this before, do you think it's, it's like that that model would work or do you think that another model would be better?

Abbey

I'm not entirely sure I'm sold on that particular model because, you know, say our podcast here

is an hour long. That's what our goal is. And now you're trying to put very different sub-brands within that initial podcast into a single episode. You're going to wind up with people skipping around.

Scott

Okay.

Abbey

And you might, it's a good way to introduce them to multiple segments or giving them a taste of what they might be able to, you know, here's a 30-second, 60-second preview, but ultimately you want to give each, I think, you want to give each of your sub podcasts a way to shine. So you want to dedicate that time to them with their own unique cover art.

So part of what you said was spot on, I think, but I would not confine yourself into only having 15 minutes for each segment. I think it really should stand on its own as well.

Scott

Okay. The other variety podcast that I found in terms of, it all centers around what people are reading. So it's called “Currently Reading.” So each episode focuses on a book.

Abbey

Yeah.

Scott

Right. Now I noticed this in terms of the cover art because what they had was individualized cover art for every episode, but in the middle of that cover art was the title, the title of the book and who's talking about it. So it had this, um, the streamlined effect of you knew exactly, okay, this is all part of the same thing, but talking about different books. So I thought, okay, I can kind of see where that might work as an overarching artwork for every single thumbnail, but with little elements that show this is specifically about acting or this is specifically about Shakespeare.

What would you, how would you …

Abbey

I love that? 

Scott

You love that.

Abbey

Yeah. That, that, when you're saying that, I'm like, yes.

Scott

Okay. Okay.

Abbey

And what I love about this and going back to marketing and branding and what you're doing here is you are really doing a lot of the market research.

You're seeing what else is out there and that's incredibly important to, you know, see the torchbearers, but also understanding that just because what you want to do isn't out there yet, doesn't mean it can't be.

Scott

Okay.

Abbey

So, you are pulling these great ideas and, you know, I love the cover art, um, theme as we're going through, um, staying to the, to brand, consistency, all of that, but we're doing it in a way that is going to be unique to you.

Scott

Okay.

Abbey

So that's, you know, so you are open to continuing with, with that, you know, it's scary to be the first, but on the other hand, I think that does give you a little bit of an edge and continuously looking at your data, your listener numbers, how long they're staying on, what, where they're tuning in because that's going to show you whether or not, um, it's resonating with your listeners or not. And if, you know, you further down the road, you say, okay, everything has good lessons,

but the Shakespeare podcast, you know, it's kind of dwindling there. Well, maybe you take that effort that you were normally putting into that Shakespeare and put it back into BizVox or, you know, reallocate your own resources as a result.

Scott

Okay. So I was, I was very fortunate enough to find those two examples that kind of showed me how both of those models could work. And they were right at the top of, of Google in, um, in a window that had a bunch of different podcast buttons that you could click.

So I, I was just looking through just to see, okay, let me see if by this title I can, and that “Old Mole Variety Hour,” there you go.

Abbey

Yeah.

Scott

Boom. I'm going to click on that because it says “variety” and then “Current Reading,” I got, I got lucky with those. Uh, I'm sure they're both wonderful, uh, podcasts. Um, so when we come back, we're going to talk about our ideas for the specific rebranding of BizVox and, uh, uh, uh, Abbey will probably win. Uh, but, uh, I'm going to try to hold my own. So we'll be back.

Abbey

Let's go.

Scott

Attention Ohio business professionals. BizVox needs your voice. We're booking guests for our first season. If you're a new entrepreneur, a veteran, small business owner, an overstressed nonprofit warrior, or a grizzled guru of the grind, and you'd like to be a guest on our podcast,

Hey, it's easier than morning coffee. Just reach out with a friendly email to info@monstervoxproductions.com. Big voices are always welcome back to the show.

Scott

All right. We are here at the Bucyrus Little Theatre. I don't know if I said that, but that's where we are. And we're talking with Abbey Kanellakis, who, by the way, is the board president of the

Little Theatre. And, uh, through her marketing expertise has managed to double the theater's

membership in a year. Uh, so you know that I know that you know that she knows what she's talking about. And, uh, she's taking me through the possibilities of rebranding the BizVox podcast as part of a larger variety podcast suite collection thing.

Abbey

Love that. And that's what we're going to call it.

Scott

That's our title right now.

Scott

Okay. So we've been tossing a possible podcast names around trying to stay in keeping with this MonsterVox theme aesthetic and brand imagery. And we've talked about that before with the Frankenstein monster and obviously nodding to Universal monsters, which I love, uh, especially Frankenstein, the Frankenstein creature. And, uh, the idea that what I do as a voice actor and a producer is stitched together many elements, script, audio, visual to create these new compelling, fun things, a mad scientist of sorts is how I see myself. Uh, so I came up with this idea, “Bride of the Podcast,” which, which fits in with the Frankenstein thing, the “Bride of Frankenstein” or “bride of the monster,” the old Ed Wood, that terrible Ed Wood movie, uh, that it's so so much fun to watch. Um, incorporating lightning strikes in the cover art and, and things like stitches in, in the cover art as well.

Some of Abbey's ideas were “ElectroVox.” “It's Alive!,” uh, both of which are our podcasts already. Those voice, those titles are in our podcasts.

Abbey

They beat us to the punch.

Scott

“Nuts and Volts” is another title that Abbey came up with. Um, so I'm going to let Abbey talk about her, how her “Nuts and Volts’ podcast would work in terms of a variety podcast with different segments.

Abbey

Yeah. So, um, I'm particularly excited about the “Nuts and Volts” idea. Um, because, you know, you get the electricity, you get the, you know, the excitement behind the ideas that you are generating, with each episode. Um, but what I also liked about using something like that and having it be the play on “nuts and bolts” is that we can dig into the, the greater lessons that you're trying to educate the audience, the listeners, on. So talking about branding and marketing as it relates to business. That's your “BizVox” talking about maybe the Shakespeare piece.

So “Nuts and Volts” Yeah. Shakespeare, um, same thing with acting. You do a lot of your, your master classes and acting. And if you wanted to go down that road with a podcast, you can talk about the nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts, uh, “nuts and volts” as it relates to acting.

So it's, it is that word play while also conjuring up that Frankenstein monster mentality, which is also rooted in your brand. So that's what I got excited about.

Scott

So, with each segment title, with each episode title, it would be the “nuts and volts” of business or acting or Shakespeare or, uh, I didn't get a chance when I was going through your bullet points for the comedy podcast for, for “Marty at the Albatross.”

Abbey

Yeah. That's the one I haven't been able to really scratch my brain on, but I'm still working on it.

Scott

I'm thinking right now and I probably shouldn't do it because you don't, because that's not very compelling listening, listening to me thinking. But so I think that that's interesting in terms of you were, you mentioned a few things about the artwork being a little bit different shade of color or different, same kind of theme, same title, but with a different subtitle, uh, and how that could

work.

Abbey

Those differentiators. So whether it be the color, whether it be a take on maybe some of the brand fonts that you use, um, just, you know, so we have settled this differences that

still articulate these subcategories. So it's all rolled up into that greater, that brand presence.

Scott

Okay. I'm going to show Abbey what I came up with. Uh, so I'm, I'm nervous. So here's what I came up with that. I call the podcast “Electric Secrets.”

Abbey

Love that.

Scott

And that comes from the original Frankenstein movie when he's talking to Igor about what lightning does the, it holds the electrical secrets of heaven. So I was like electrical secrets.

Like what about “Electric Secrets?”

So they don't think that the podcast is for electricians, “Electric secrets.” Uh, and we, uh, you really enjoyed the tagline “Get struck,” “Get Struck”.I had that before and, and bride of the podcast. Uh, that would be the same as my, uh, brand font. For some reason, my tablet doesn't support that font. So, uh, “Get Struck” at the top. I have “Electric Secrets” in big glowy, uh, monster, uh, font letters, uh, with a storm clouds in the background. I use this storm cloud motif a lot in my social media posts. It's got lightning. I've got a big lightning strike going through the artwork. And then it says below it says a podcast from MonsterVox Productions with my logo and all that stuff.

So, this would be the overarching big variety podcast. And then let's say I was going to rebrand BizVox to fit within this. So I came up with this same cloud background only instead of blue for the original, I've turned it to black and white and I've got the BizVox logo. Um, I'm sorry, slogan, uh, small business, big voice with a lightning strike.

Same thing going through the artwork. The title “BizVox” and below biz box, I have the subtitle part of “Electric Secrets,” a podcast from MonsterVox productions. And then on the other side of the lightning strike of that text I have for business owners, entrepreneurs, the, the subtitle that you, that you see already.

Now, okay, Abbey critique, critique this. 

Abbey

Critiquing. I absolutely love the title.

Um, and I'm going to go back. I do love the, the, the “Get Struck!” tagline and I'm going to illuminate a little bit as to why because as you are discussing each one of your topics, whether

it's business or Shakespeare or acting or whatever, it's, you know, struck by creativity, struck by lightning is a very action prone inspirational drive. So that's why I'm particularly fascinated with that.

Scott

And I think I was trying to figure out a way to build it into each one of these, but I thought maybe, cause I was going along the lines of the unique, um, tagline of each segment, BizVox segment has that unique tagline, small business, big voice, which we were a big fan of when we first started talking about it.

Scott

Um, so I'm, uh, I have another segment, which talks about vocal performance. So I'm going to describe the artwork for that. Same thing. I've changed the color a little bit more, a little bit more reddish, red pinkish, uh, a different font. The, the segment is called “The Voices That Bind Us” still a lightning strike through the cover art. Only this time it's a little bit gold. It's, it's golden white instead of purple and white, which was the other ones, uh, with a subtitle or a sub, uh, I guess description, “Celebrating the unforgettable voices that connect and shape our lives.”

Again, the subtitle is part of “Electric Secrets,” a podcast from MonsterVox Productions. Abbey, what are your thoughts on that?

Abbey

I really liked the, um, that you are carrying the theme of the electricity throughout each one in a different way, not just the color, but in the positioning of it. I like that it keeps it visually entertaining. 

Scott

Okay. 

Abbey

Um, so that's very nice. Um, I'm still, I guess kind of going back to both with the “Electric Secrets,” and again, as we are spitballing here and talking about how this sausage is made. So this is a little behind the curtain. Um, but what are the secrets? What are you conveying with that, that word specifically? Um, you know, with “The Voices That Bind Us.” What secret are you going to reveal to the listener?

Scott

Okay.

Abbey

That's what I want to know. As I'm looking at the phrase “Electric Secrets,” the electricity piece of it, I, I totally get because it's what we've discussed so I can get on board with that.

But now I want it. I want secrets to find.

Scott

Okay.

Abbey

And what are you revealing in each of one of these?

Scott

You want me to answer you?

Abbey

Yes, I do.

Scott

It is the secrets of what makes a voice memorable. Why we latch onto it? Why is it that people who haven't had training in singing people like Billy Holiday never took a voice class in her life, but we remember Billy Holiday and we know and recognize Billy Holiday's voice whenever we hear it. Why is that? And that's what I want to talk about with my guests and my guests are vocal performers, vocal teachers, music teachers, things like that. Uh, so that would be the secret of local performance.

Abbey

I love that.

Scott

So I see exactly where you're coming from with building it in. That's what I was kind of racking my brain about. Okay, if I call it secrets, what are the secrets that I'm revealing? Um, and that makes perfect, perfect sense. Uh, my question, the, the font and the title, do you think it's, uh, and the subtitle part of “Electric Secrets?” Do you think that's confusing for a listener? Because your, your model has the title, the big title with a smaller title, “The Nuts and Volts” of acting, “The Nuts and Volts of Small Business,” “The Nuts and Volts of Voices” or Vocal Performance, or Great Voices, or something like that.

Abbey

Yes.

Scott

Um, what do you think works better? Cause I, cause that's when we talked about that before, we don't want to confuse people.

Abbey

Right. Right.

Scott

But what are your thoughts?

Abbey

I think both can work. I think the “Electric Secrets” presents a little bit of a challenge from a marketing standpoint, because most of what we will need to do is describe it and articulate it very consistently and very dominantly. Um, so you actually want people to read a little bit more of those descriptions, uh, before they dig in to whatever that podcast might be. I feel that's how my initial reaction to it.

Um, but that being said, I also like that, you know, the voices that bind us, um, really does stand on its own. And it's so it's almost like the “Electric Secrets” takes a step back. So, whereas the “Nuts and Volts keeps that being front and center, um, your approach to it lets each one stand on its own merit, which I think obviously validity and value to both.

Scott

Okay. 

Abbey

So it's, we're not going to get any answer here today, listeners. At least I don't think we think we are. 

Scott

Oh, here's, here's, here's my question is, as the CEO of this company, as a CEO, but what is, what is, what is more? What do you think is more interesting and compelling for a listener? Knowing the “Nuts and Volts, the inner workings of something or the “Secrets” of something. 

Abbey

Oh, but both of those are from a marketing …

Scott

I know you want to say the second one.

Abbey

No, no, I don't. I really don't because I, because I will tell you why I can't tell you how many blog posts I've written that have been “the secrets of” and there's there's psychology behind that phrase and I am never going to be one to say that's not a good phrase to use. But I also know from a search engine optimization mentality. Yes. The importance of “how to” articles, everyone is searching how to, how to find this, how to do this, how to.

Scott

Okay.

Abbey

So I can also see the value of building that into every single one of your episodes.

Scott

I see. Okay. Okay. 

Scott

I made the water muddier and I wanted to win so bad. But I, Abbey has the knowledge and I don't. So again, just to recap, if you're really, really creative, sometimes that can cause you to be caught in this creative funk without any grounding and you got to know when somebody like Abbey is necessary to help ground you and help you figure out a way to stay on target with your branding and what you're doing.

Abbey

Scott, I have a solution. 

Scott

Okay. You have a solution. 

Abbey

There's a great solution.

Scott

Dear God, should we turn off the recording right now?

Abbey

Absolutely not. I actually think that we should get everyone.

We're doing this podcast, these podcasts for your listeners, right?

Scott

That is correct.

Abbey

So let's give them a say. 

Scott

Okay.

Abbey

Let's create a poll. 

Scott

Okay.

Let's get this, push this episode out.

Abbey

And we will pull on your social media and we will let the listeners say what they want the episode or what the podcast to be named.

Scott

Okay. Wow. Yeah. That's a good idea.

Yeah. I was going to, I was going to totally go home and start working on this, but now we have to have a poll. 

Abbey

No, no, you can still work. I'm totally okay with you can work on the content piece. It's just the branding and imagery that we have to hold off on.

Scott

Okay. So. Okay. All right.

Abbey

Let's do it. 

Scott

Let's do it.

We'll come up with a poll.

Abbey

He’s gonna kill me.

Scott

No, no.

Abbey

All right. So when you see the poll, make sure you vote because this is a very important assignment that we are tasking with all of the listeners.

Scott

Yes. My life is in your hands. Don't screw it up.

All right. Thank you, Abbey, for your expertise.

This was so much fun. I'm glad we could do this for the last episode of the year.

So, next year, 2025, who knows what this podcast will be called, but we're going to make sure that it's a smooth transition and that it's not confusing for anybody listening to it. And we're going to make sure that it showcases me and my company in the way it should. So, you know, you know, exactly what I'm about and what I do.

So again, I'm Scott. Did I say that before? You know it's me. Thanks for listening and happy new year. Abbey, anything?

Abbey

Happy New Year.

Scott

All right. We'll see you next time.

Abbey

See ya!

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice or endorsement of its participants, nor of any companies or persons discussed therein. MonsterVox Productions is not responsible for any losses, damage or liabilities that may arise from the use of information contained in this podcast. The views expressed in this podcast are those of its participants and may not be those of any podcasting platform or hosting service utilized in its distribution.

MonsterVox Productions, LLC.