Today’s guest post features leading work at home expert Kelly McCausey. Kelly has just re-branded her well known and popular podcast, Work at Home Moms Talk Radio and today she launches Solo Smarts Podcast. Her experience is a great case study on serving your target market, your business goals and reflecting all of that in your branding strategy.
SBS: Kelly explain for us the purpose of your new re-branded talk show and the target market you’re reaching.
I’ve been hosting Work at Home Moms Talk Radio since November of 2003. Up to around six months ago, I thought I’d be hosting it forever. I’m a bit naive that way, I like to think that good things will stay the same. I realized though, that good things need to change sometimes – especially when I’ve changed myself.
My son grew up and moved out in 2009 and at first I didn’t feel any different about the Work at Home Mom brand. A year and a half later, I do feel different.
It is important to me to be genuine. For more than seven years I have voiced the joys and tribulations of being a work at home mom.Not having had to plan my day around my son in so long, was I starting to come off like a fraud to my listeners? Nobody said so, but the thought was in my head and I decided to make a change.
I needed to establish a new brand, one that suited me.
Thinking about who I am and who I best relate to, I decided to go with a ‘solopreneur’ target market. Solopreneurs are building awesome businesses by the sweat of their brow and the skills they’ve developed. They’re using the internet for business or should be, and I’m excited to help them reach their goals and dreams.
Interestingly enough, the work at home moms I’ve mentioned the new brand to have pointed out that they are solopreneurs too. True!
SBS: Why did you decide that changing your brand made good business sense?
Well, I’ll tell you that I didn’t make the decision so that I could reach a ‘larger’ market as some might guess. No, for me it’s about operating from a position of strength. For many years, I found that in being a WAHM. I was being myself then and I have to be myself now. I think we’ll always accomplish more and find more satisfaction in a business that fits us like a glove.
SBS: What kind of research and process did you go through to re-brand WAHM Talk Radio?
Good question! First, I sat down and put it all on paper. How will this work? What happens to my ‘mom’ brand of sites and products? How do I grow from here? What else needs to be rebranded and what should stay the same?
Then I gave my good friend Wendy Piersall a call. Wendy knows all about rebranding an online business and has learned so much from her experiences. She asked me some great questions and helped me to think things through.
I chose my new domain name, Solo Smarts, in about ten minutes, it was love at first sight for sure.
The biggest decision for me to make was whether to sell Work at Home Moms Talk Radio to someone else and start a new podcast with the new name – or to keep the site with it’s hundreds of pages of content and over a hundred archived episodes and just change the name. I choose to change the name.
SBS: What kind of programming can audiences expect?
This is the most exciting part. This re-brand opens everything up for a much wider pool of possible guests. I’ve only invited a handful of male guests to the show in the past but that is going to change. I’ll be pursuing several new topics as well though I’m going to be feeling my way as I go along. I’m absolutely brimming over with enthusiasm for these changes. A little scared too if I’m being honest!
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To listen to the first Solo Smart podcast click here. Congratulations Kelly!
