Welcome to Digital Creator. My name is Dylan Schmidt, your host. And today I have a special interview episode for you. Talking with Andy Murphy. He is the host of the Secure Family Podcast. He's also an author and as you'll hear in our conversation, he's just an awesome dude. Andy show the Secure Family Podcast just hit number one in the parenting category on Apple Podcasts. And what's interesting about that is starting just this year, he rebranded his podcast because it was was formerly called the Secure Dad Podcast. So about a month into his rebrand, he hits number one on the Apple charts, which is just incredible. And I wanted to talk to Andy to just get an idea of what his process was for doing his podcast show rebrand. And if you're considering rebranding your show, this is a must listen. Or if you're ever, like, maybe wondering if you can change your show in the future, there's a lot of valuable gems Andy drops along the way. So please enjoy my conversation with Andy Murphy. Andy, welcome for the first time to Digital Creator. Thank you. I mean, I appreciate this. It's as awesome to sit down to talk to you and be a part of your show. Diving right in. Can we start out first a little bit about where you're at today? Sure. So, I started a podcast in 2018 called the Secure Dad Podcast. It is now called the Secure Family Podcast, and we're gonna talk about that more in a minute. And right now, I am on episode number 314. This is one of those things that when I started it, I was like, nobody's gonna listen to this. I'm gonna run out of content in six months. Who's gonna care? You know, that sort of thing. So, I made a commitment early on that I would do it for six months. And And at that point, I was like, you know what? This is going pretty well, so let's do it for a year. And so, kinda pushed it that far. So today, you know, there's been a lot of success. There's been a lot of failure along the way too. Things are growing. The podcast is hovering in the top 10 on the parenting category on Apple Podcast, which is awesome. So in a lot of ways, things are going the best that they ever have, which is awesome. And I don't wanna bury the lead here, but you did hit number one in the parenting category. Is that right? Yes. I did. I did. And it, apparently, was only for I appreciate that. But I think it was for, like, six hours, and I just happened to check it the right time. But I don't care. I've got the screenshot. I've got proof. It happened. That was one of my goals for 2025 was to reach number one, and I did it, check it off. And now I can just, you know, slide on down back to, you know, eight where I normally am. You can take a vacation on any goal for the rest of the year, I guess. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I hit the big one. It's we're done. February. We're done. Retirement party incoming. That's right. Not to sidetrack the conversation here, but you have written a book that is available on Amazon. Did you write the book before launching the podcast, or did you launch the podcast and then write the book? I wrote the book, and I created the podcast to push people to go buy the book. And so if you look at the, it's right here over my shoulder. And that was the original, like, cover art was, like, something that kinda threw back to the book. So we're like, oh, I'm in the right place. Or when I went to go see the book on Amazon, oh, this is definitely the book because it's the same thing. So I I wrote the book first and then launched the podcast almost simultaneously, which is crazy to think about now that I look back on it. Like, why did I choose to do those both at the same time? But it worked. The book did really, really well when it opened in 2018. I think I got to one zero nine on the Amazon author list when it came out, which for an unrepresented new author is almost just lightning in a bottle. So yeah. So it it it did really well, and the podcast all kinda coming together. So I guess I did the right thing. It you know, I look back on it now, like, oh, I woulda do it differently now. But, of course, I'm you know, that was 2018 also. So but, yeah, those two things came pretty much at the same time. Feels just like a couple years ago, but 2018 supposedly was, like, seventeen years ago now. There's a pandemic in between then. You know? There's a lot in between today and 2018, But that in my mind would place more significance on what you've built during all those years, launching it, with your book. And then take us up to, you know, just recently where you had basically like what, what got you thinking about rebranding your podcast, especially after you've done it for so many years? So I was reaching episode number 300, which is a big deal for me. Cause I had ed Calderon on the show, you know, ed, that was a big deal. I had been working for two years to get that. And so it finally happened. I finally got to the right person. And I was like, okay. So this is like the pinnacle, you know, here of the Secured Ad Podcast to have him on. And so, about that same time, I was thinking because we're also approaching the end of the year, at episode 300. And so I was like, I I think I might need to do something different. You know, I don't quite know what because as a creator, you understand this. I mean, you you're doing, like, a a rebrand thing yourself. You wanna keep it fresh for your audience, but you also wanna, like, keep it fresh for yourself. So I had a great conversation, with our mutual friend Jeremy from Creator Club, and he was like, hey. You know? So you have the Secure Dad. Do you feel like that can be an exclusive title because it's for you know? The connotation is is this for men only. And I get that. I do. And I've I've always had mom listeners. But I was like, you know what? I think at this point in time, Jeremy is really making sense here. Let's look at rebranding just the podcast. So, like, thesecuredad.com stays. The book stays the same. My LLC and copyrights all stay the same. We're just gonna change the name of the podcast just to do something fresh and different for the audience, but also for me. Just I I just wanna do something exciting for me. And so it was like once I decided to actually do it, I started, you know, talking to people like yourself. I talked to Brian Marron who has the, Human Behavior Podcast because they did a rebrand of their podcast as well. And he was just like, yeah, man. It's easy. You just go in and you just change all of the titles and stuff inside of your, you know, podcast provider, and that's it. And I'm like, oh, like, I would have thought, like, I had to go through some sort of, like, process or, like, get customers. No. You could just change the name of your show whenever you want to. So that was really cool. Once I kinda got the the feeling that I needed to do something different, and I was just like it it made me excited again. It really did make me excited again to be creating and doing this stuff and to just hopefully open up to a different audience and bring more people in. Because at the end of the day, that's just what I'm doing. I wanna help as many people as I can. That's awesome. To be fair, it used to be, like, a few years ago, harder to change your podcast. Like, it would mess up the RSS feed and, like, links. Like, I still have some Sure. Chat. But these days, it's way easier. It's it's so nice. Were you worried about losing any of your existing audience changing the identity of your show? You never know when you make a big change, how people are going to respond to it. But I was also like, if they don't like the fact that I changed literally one word in the podcast title, everything else is pretty much gonna stay the same, then they can go. It'll be alright. I'm not gonna miss those people. I don't know. I'm sure I did. I'm sure I lost somebody, but, like, I don't really know. I haven't noticed. It's funny, I made a big deal about a one word rebrand going from the Secure Dad podcast to the Secure Family podcast. I was going around in circles trying to figure out what does the new name need to be. Like, how is this gonna work? What are we gonna do here? And I was talking to you, and I was running through, like, all the list of stuff. And you were like, Andy, you're already ranking number one for the Secure Family podcast. Why don't you just consider this one? And it was very much like, Andy, stop worrying. Just go with this one. It's gonna be fine because you're already ranking here. So thank you for that. But, yeah, it was just like, I'm gonna keep this one word change, and it's really not that big a deal. And the artwork changed, so I think I'm gonna carry all of my people through this. I felt confident that I probably carried 99.5% of people through, with me to the Secure Family podcast. Not to mention all the people that you'll gain. I mean, obviously, it's working well. You're in the top 10 of parenting podcasts. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And just to share with with people listening, Andy had mentioned a couple names to me and was like, what do you think about these? And I had googled the Secure Family. Mhmm. I I I think I might have put the podcast on there. I think it was just to see if it was taken. I was like, oh, let me just Google this, and then Andy's, podcast was, like, the first result. I'm like, wait. There he is. Like, that seems really natural. Right. And that's not a step that I'd even done. And, like, yeah, I was like, oh, yeah. That would that's smart. Yeah. Because I thought I thought I'll get there when I figure out what the what I want the name to be, but that helped me to get there, and that was that was good to think ahead. Even stuff that I I don't even have any intention of using sometimes. I'm like, I wanna Google this just to see if it's taken. You know? Even actually I like just googling random inventions too. Like, last night, my wife was like, oh, we should invent because our daughter likes eating food that's, like, way cooled down, like, has no it's, like, neutral temperature, not even room temperature, like, colder. And she was like, we need to invent something that cools down food. And I'm like, I bet that exists. I cool it. Sure enough. It's like this fan you can place on top of food that covers it and, like, cools it down. Yeah. It exists for that exact situation for kids. But the Secure Family Podcast name wasn't taken, which is, like, crazy that even in this was 2024, that something that you would think I I thought would have been taken was not. Mhmm. Right. Yeah. It's yeah. And it's crazy. Like, what is copyrighted and what isn't? Like, I admit, like, for me, hell froze over and I joined TikTok after it came back from the ban. And I was like, well, if it survives this, I'll give it a shot. And so I go to sign up, and sure enough, the Secure Dad I thought somebody would have, like, poached it a long time ago. So I was like, I thought I was gonna have to change it up or do something different or try to fight somebody. But, no, it was like, it's it's here. It's ready to go. And that was another thing. Like, I I've really only changed the name of the podcast. All of my socials are still at the Secure Data. I'm very lucky that they are all the same, because I guess it's just a a random assortment of words. My son and I actually have a podcast together that's called Farmer Brown's Dinosaur Farm, and I chose that many words so that I didn't have to worry about, like, specific copyrights or whatever. It was just like, here's something that's gonna be brand new. If somebody types this in, our show's definitely gonna come up because nobody else is gonna have a kid's podcast that is this many words. You know? So it was just, kinda, I think, just like a continuation of that. Yeah. I love that. I know you do, you know, some sponsorships, partnerships, with brands and companies. Did changing the name, the identity of your show, affect that at all? How did that process go? No. They loved it. They were they were on board, from the beginning. I remember I was having a conversation with one particular sponsor, and they were like, this aligns perfectly with what we wanna do in 2025. So I was like, alright. Well, then there we go. So going forward, when we work together in'25, it's just gonna be the Secure Family podcast. And, so everybody has been very supportive of it. Nobody has has said anything. I don't think I've even gotten a complaint that I changed the name. Mhmm. I don't think anybody's ever never complained about it. So Yeah. Did you reach out to those companies before you changed the name, like, when you were just in the thinking phase? Were you like, hey. I might be doing this? Well, the thinking phase also happened to coincide with renewing contracts. So it was like, hey. While we're talking about 2025, this is something exciting that I'm going to be doing, which I also think showed my folks that, oh, Andy's just not doing the same old copy and paste stuff that he did last year. He's gonna be pushing his brand forward, which is what, you know, brands who wanna partner with you wanna see. They wanna see that you're climbing the ranks and you're not satisfied with you are. They wanna see you moving forward. So, yeah. No. They were they were great about that, and and there was no issues there. And it was just cool to to have their support because, you know, these are professionals who deal with other people, not just, you know, me. And they were and just to get their feedback on what they thought it was was extraordinarily valuable to me to have their opinions. Oh, yeah. I think this is a great idea for you, that sort of stuff. And if they had told me that it wasn't a good idea, I would have listened as well. So, you know, it was just great all the way around. Nice. And going back to that still thinking phase, did you have a plan of this will unlock, you know, this for me in the future type of thing? That makes sense. Sure. So I was hoping to bring more parents into the fold. Obviously, when you have the word dad in there, it's like, okay, your show is for dads. And honestly, that was not my intent. That was the voice that I had when I started this thing. I've done a lot of reading with Michael Hyatt, who started Platform University at the time, and he was just like, you need to find your voice and tell people what your voice is. So I was like, okay. Well, the Secure Dad is is my voice. And a couple years ago, I had sent out an email to folks asking them, hey. You know, why why do you listen to the Secure Dad? Why do you follow? And this this lady replied. She's like, my husband doesn't care about this stuff, so one of us has to. And that helped me realize, wait a minute. There's a whole lot more moms listening to the show than I thought. So that's where I kinda came up as a kind of a bridge. You know, every parent is a protector because we are. Every parent is a protector. So I was hoping with the Secure Family podcast, when people are scrolling scrolling through and they see it, will kind of make that zero moment of truth a little bit easier for moms to say, oh, this is a family show. It's not just for dads. I'll give it a listen. And hopefully, it's gonna be something that's meaningful and impactful to to them and their family and their personal lives. So it's like you started it out thinking it was gonna be one audience, Then you got the feedback of it's going to be actually, this is who's showing up. And then you adjusted your branding and messaging a little bit to better fit who actually is there versus saying like, no, my original intention was to only reach these people. Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. And does that inform your topics or guests or things like that? Like when you started planning this year? So I kind of looked at it as in a way we're starting over. And so I took it from the very first episode that we did. So January 1 was a Wednesday, and I released shows on Wednesday. And I'm like, nobody's gonna listen to a podcast on January 1 or I've released the trailer. So the next one, which was January 8, I was like, okay. What is the most important lesson that I could tell these folks? What is it that they're going to hear today that's gonna bring them back next week? And if it's something that I've covered in the past, that's okay. I'm gonna say it differently. I'm gonna say it new with a lot more experience. So I really looked at it as we're just starting over again. We're you know, if I could start this podcast over again, what would I tell you? What are the most important things? So we're just kind of, I'm still working from that timeline on what is it that parents really truly need to know. We're gonna build this audience and we're gonna build this journey together and we're gonna walk it together, you know, pretty much starting new back in January. Nice. And and you had shared at the beginning that you've recorded over 300 episodes. So Mhmm. You didn't change any of the prior episodes, it sounds like. Right? It just sounds like those stayed in the feed. Yep. They are all still there, and I think all of, like, the podcast art is still there too if you scroll back far enough. But yeah. So they're all still there, and I reference them all the time. And I was like, hey. I covered this in the past, or I had this great guest on. I think I I did a throwback to Tony Blauer, like, the first first time I had him on. Was like, hey. Go listen to episode, I don't know, 100 and something where I talked to Tony Blauer about this exact same thing, and he gave great insights for it. There's a link for you in the show notes. Go listen to it so people can go back and listen to it. Like, and all they're all still on the website. All the blog posts are still there. Everything is still there so that people can go back and reference it. I didn't wanna just completely start over again. I wanted those, you know, past guests. I wanted to honor them, and I wanted to make sure that their words still lived on. I think that's an important thing to highlight is you didn't act like it didn't exist or it's some Right. Right. Other universe because I've spoken to a lot of people that kind of feel like that. Like they're letting go of everything that they did to create something new. And it's like, you don't have to. Like, it sounds like you didn't really overthink that part of it. No. I I wanted to let people know that, oh, yeah. Okay. So this is like the first real episode of the Secure Family Podcast, but I've been doing this for a long time. You can trust what I'm saying. So I've looked at it as like, here's this whole library you can go back and take a look at. Here's all my receipts. Here's all this stuff that I've done so that you can know, okay. Andy has a pretty good understanding of what he's talking about here and also to let them know that I'm not gonna go out and say something that either I don't mean or I don't do myself, that sort of thing, just to kind of, like, just build a catalog of stuff that people can go back and listen to because hopefully they have. I hope that people have really liked it and said, oh, I'm gonna go back and, you know, look for this guest or that sort of thing and and see what he's done in the past so I can have a better idea of what to do. How did you communicate the rebrand to your audience, in the podcast and then, like, on social media and email? Sure. So I took the entire month of December, and I mentioned in every episode in December, hey. There's gonna be some changes coming to the show in January. You know? Tune in next week. I'll tell you more. And so, eventually, by the time we got to the last one, it was, hey. I'm starting the Secure Family podcast. By the way, I'm gonna take off Christmas Day and New Year's Day because those are both Wednesdays. And then when I come back in January, it's gonna be a fresh new look, but I'm still gonna be me. I'm still going to do all the same stuff. Still gonna have wonderful guests. It's just gonna look different. And also in the emails that corresponded with those, there was a a lead up to, oh, hey. Here it is. And then I think on January 1, I emailed my folks and we're saying like, hey. The trailer for the show is here. If you wanna go listen to it, this is what the show is. This is what it looks like. But, yeah, it's still me. I'm still doing all this great stuff. So and I was trying to communicate that on social media. I got good feedback from my email list and also from, like, podcast listeners. It got a little weird in social media, and I don't know if that's just how maybe you have a shorter form or whatever, but people were getting very confused thinking that, like, the secured ad was going away. So I had to address that publicly and then message people and be like, oh, hey. No. Everything is still staying the same basically because I don't wanna change the Secured Dad LLC. It took me a long time to get that. That's what my registered business is. I'm not changing anything with that. So everything is under that. So and and people seem to connect with that. They just like, oh, yeah. Cool. So you're just changing that. Yep. And even, like, the SecureDad logo is still on the cover of the Secure Family Podcast because I want people to realize when they go to it, oh, this is still Andy's thing. It's the same logo that's on the book back here and on the website and also in all my social media stuff just to try to have I know we have a different name for a podcast and then a different URL, but it's, it's all the same. Also, if you go to securefamilypodcast.com, it just redirects to the securedad.com. So I do have that if people start to search for it and that sort of stuff. When you were in the idea phase, what advice would you give yourself then from where you are now, like, if you could go back? I would probably tell myself, don't overthink it. It's really not that hard. And that's where talking to you and talking to Brian and talking to Jeremy really kind of came into place. For anybody who's looking to do a rebrand, you know, it's it's not scary. You know, go for it. Just make sure you know what you wanna do, and you talk to people about it to make sure that you're tracking in the right direction, especially to people who have done it before. A part of a a mastermind group that I talked about this rebrand that I was doing, And they were all like, yeah. Go for it. And if you do it, like, commit to it a %. Like, don't act like you might go back or anything like that. It's kind of the whole, you know, Columbus made it to the new world and burns his ships kind of thing. We're we're here and we're gonna stay, which, ironically, Columbus did not burn all of his ships because he ended up going back to Spain. That's just one of those things in history that, it sounds cool, though. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for sharing. Let's mention your podcast too, which we've been talking about this whole time. But, where can people find your podcast now? Sure. So anywhere you listen to podcast, the show is there. Just search for the Secure Family podcast, and it'll come up on Google as, you know, you have demonstrated personally that it's there. And and if you wanna know more about me, you could just go to the securedad.com. But, yeah, I release a new show, every Wednesday. It's a lot of fun. We talk about all the different things that pertain to keeping your kids and yourself safe. And, yeah, a lot of it is, you know, sometimes it's basic stuff, and then sometimes it's like, oh, wait a minute. You might need to actually freeze your child's credit because their Social Security number can get stolen from them. And that's not something that everybody thinks about, but it's actually a pretty big deal. So we're covering everything from making sure that your home is safe at night to making sure that your child's financial future is secure. Important stuff. Thank you so much, Andy. You know what's crazy about being a creator? Everyone sees the final product, the polished videos, the engaging podcast, the perfect post. What they don't see is that 90% of us have hit a wall at some point, feeling burnout, overwhelmed, overstimulated, a combination of all the above, maybe even thinking about throwing in the towel. And I get it. I've been there. There could be a lot of pressure to keep up with algorithm changes, always needing fresh content ideas. It's a lot of work going into being a content creator. It can feel pretty lonely sometimes. That's exactly why I made the creator club. And look, this isn't some exclusive expensive mastermind group. It's just a free discord community where creators like you and I can connect, we can share wins, we can get feedback, and just be real with other real people who get it. Whether you're just starting out or you've been in the game for a few years now, you're welcome to join us. If you need feedback on your latest podcast episode, post it. If you're working on a new thumbnail design, share it. You wanna celebrate a win? We wanna hear about it. And the best part, doesn't matter where you are in the world because it's available twenty four seven. Joining is as simple as heading over to thecreatorclub.com. There's no complicated sign up process, no membership fees, literally just real creators supporting real creators. Thanks again for joining me today. Until next time, keep creating.