Rebranding for 2022

Life update / mini-episode. I am taking a break from podcasting until early next year. Then I will be back with a new name. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone. My name is Tom Driver, and it has been a long time since I posted a podcast episode. So I'm gonna post uh this mini episode. It's just gonna be kind of like an update on my life, where I've been at, and why I've been away for so long. So the first reason that I haven't posted an episode in a while is actually that I had recorded two episodes and they were like three-person episodes, um and the audio got kind of messed up because I used one of my old microphones. And so unfortunately, I'm sitting on two episodes right now that I might try to salvage, but because of the audio quality, I was not able to release them. So that was kind of a bummer, and you know, that's kind of why I haven't posted in so long. But then moving forward, I've been really thinking a lot about rebranding the podcast. So, most importantly, I just want to remove the word fitness from the podcast because um if you guys have been keeping up, like I don't only talk about fitness, I feel like it's kind of giving the wrong idea for what the podcast is, you know. And I I think I talked to Corey about it on his episode, and he was like, Yeah, if you're gonna do fitness, you gotta only stick to fitness topics. And so I don't really want to be bound by fitness, I don't really want um people to think they're coming here for only fitness content and then get disappointed, or I don't want uh like I also want to be discovered by people who are into maybe some of the other topics I talk about. So um, yeah, that's one reason I'm gonna rebrand, and then the other one was like we closely linked Drive Fitness, the podcast, with the app, um, which I'll talk about in a minute. But in general, right, the podcast wasn't doing a great job marketing the app for us, so I was kind of hoping maybe the podcast would blow up or just get popular and that would bring people over to the app. Um, because the app it kind of required you to put a lot of information and data and spend a lot of time like um using it. So I figured this would be a quicker way to for people to like access our brand. And first of all, I didn't do a great job at converting people over to app users. So I just from like the app point of view, I didn't think it was a great um use of our money to keep funding you know the podcast. And then also we've done a lot of work on the app recently to make it much, much more accessible. So um I'm gonna be kind of announcing this later on, but we're essentially gonna build like a story into the app, and you follow along the story, and it's kind of like a video game, but it presents workouts for you to do. And then the old version of the app was very focused on tracking your workout data, but this version it'll just present you the workouts to do, and then you you just do them, you don't enter them in, right? So, because of that, um I think the app is actually gonna be more accessible now than the podcast. I feel like you could um pick up that download the app and you could, you know, play the first workout program in just a couple minutes, you know, tap through it, see what it's all about, and kind of get an idea of what we're doing at Drive Fitness quicker than the podcast, actually. So therefore, the podcast is not actually the you know the most like accessible way for people to kind of get a hold of our brand and our idea now. So from that perspective, like from you know the perspective of the app, I don't really want to uh fund the podcast anymore as like um like a connected brand, you know. So I'm still gonna be promoting the app all the time on the podcast and talking about it with my guests. It's it's still like a major component of my life. But um this podcast is gonna switch more to just like something I do for fun, you know? So I'm gonna switch the name to be either like the drive program or maybe even the Tom Driver program. I'm still thinking about that. I'm not a hundred percent sure. So if you have any suggestions on what the name should be or even what the podcast should be moving forward, I'm it's it's essentially gonna be like a little more relaxed. Um I'm I might interview like friends or family or people that have nothing to do with the app now. Um, I also I don't know if you guys want to hear solo episodes, but I could do solo episodes. Personally, I've been preferring just like the interview style because uh I don't know, after I release a solo one, I kind of like have second thoughts about it, and I'm like, uh, should I take that down? Whereas like every time I've done an interview, even if it's not the best interview, uh I've always felt like really good about it because it represented like a moment when I met with someone. So more more than likely, it's just gonna be interview or like um like group podcast from here on out, but it's gonna be much more relaxed. Um, I'm gonna have fun with it, and then having said all that, uh I am going to take a break from it, and I am going to rebrand, kind of think up of like a new name, like I said, uh like a new like um logo image. Um I might put together some new social medias for it, and then I'm just gonna like relaunch it um like very early in 2022, so like probably January or even February of 2022. Reach out to me if you have any ideas or if you want to record an interview. I I still might be down to record an interview um, you know, in this time period. I'm just not gonna like edit it and and launch or or release an episode. Um, oh, last thing, last thing. Um and this kind of ties all in together. I got a new job recently, so I'll be working as a tech support engineer for Oracle. That's kind of exciting. Um, it's work from home, which was kind of a big thing for me. So I'm very excited to start that new part of my career, and I'm currently like in training for that, and that that also ties into why I'm gonna be taking a break. Um the, you know, I just have to become like an expert on this product um very quickly. So it's been a little bit demanding at work, um, and I just kind of want to focus on that and make sure that this new you know part of my career goes well. So I feel like also by early 2022, I'll be adjusted in that job and I'll be ready to put time in on the podcast again. Um, like I said, I'm still working super hard on the app. Uh and like if I get any free time, I'm still gonna work on that app. I just don't want to try to juggle everything at once right now. So even though I'm taking a break, the podcast is not going anywhere. This is absolutely one of my all-time favorite things to do. I love sitting down with people. I love talking to people. I think it has been one of the healthiest things that I've added to my life, uh just forcing myself to constantly be seeking out new people to sit down, learn from, get to know, and just build a relationship with. I'm still kind of getting the hang of this, but you know, I have no intention of stopping doing this, and I'm just gonna get better and better from here. In fact, I think it's gonna come back better than ever in 2022. So thanks for being patient, and I'll see you guys next year.