The Comfort of the Familiar. The Danger of the Routine.
I’m bored with my iPhone. My Apple Watch is meh. I could take or leave my iPad.
That behavior concerns Apple. So, every year, always in September and October, they address that to keep us fans happy. They don’t want people like me to head to Best Buy, pick up a Samsung device, and make the switch. Even successful products have to fight familiarity and routine.
Each September, Apple releases new operating systems for all their devices, making them do new and creative things. Some items I’ve always wanted, many new things that make them cool again. Apple grabs my attention so I spend more time with their products.
Then in October, the new stuff comes out. No doubt you’re hearing about it now. A foldable phone, new, lighter laptops, new smart home gear. Apple’s goal is to keep me in the family, gushing about what’s next.
How about you? The fact that your show works today, doesn’t mean listeners will find it interesting and entertaining tomorrow.
New features give customers (listeners) reasons to rediscover products (your show) they already own.
I do some work for smaller companies where they move me around their markets. When I come back to a show I haven’t spoken with or listened to for a few months, I always ask the same question: what new stuff have you done for your audience? What have you done to improve the treatment of content of your show? What is your show doing today that it wasn’t doing three months ago? What have you done that would make me so jealous you thought of it and I didn’t that I’d want to steal it from you.
That’s the ultimate compliment in radio, right?
I’ve come back to many shows over the years and asked this question only to get stares and crickets. If you want to stay vibrant and relevant and keep your fans from straying, in search of other shiny objects for entertainment and connection, you’ll wanna address this.
Fall is a great time of year to assess everything on your show. If your benchmarks are working, how might you do them differently to give them a shot of B12?
What new features have you added around the stable benchmarks that keep the audience glued to you? Everyone is fighting for ears and eyes in the Attention Economy. How do you address that?
Many shows worry about this – some even wondering why you’d change a formula that seems to be working. Because you don’t entertain in a vacuum – your competitors, if they do this, will easily grab the attention of your fans. That creates a potential deficit for you.
Innovation doesn’t mean blowing up everything that works. It means finding new ways to present your great content. Keep the benchmarks your audience loves. But challenge yourself to execute them differently. Find a fresh angle on the biggest story of the day. Give listeners something they haven’t heard from you before. The goal isn’t change for the sake of change. It’s making sure your show continues to give people a reason to choose you.
Your listeners have options. Lots of them. And your competition doesn’t have to be better at everything. They just have to be more interesting at the moment your show becomes predictable. That’s how you lose ground. Not necessarily in one dramatic exodus, but one missed opportunity at a time. Give people a reason to keep choosing you.
Innovation is not about giving yourself something new to do. It’s about giving the audience something new to experience.
The argument for staying the same is always seductive: it’s working, so why change it? But that’s a snapshot of the present, not a strategy for the future. Your audience is changing. Its expectations are changing. The competition is changing. Why should your show be the only thing that doesn’t?
Ask yourself these three questions:
- What do we do today that we weren’t doing three months ago?
- Which of our benchmarks has become so predictable that we can execute it on autopilot?
- What could we do next week that would make a listener tell someone else about our show?
Boredom creates an opportunity for someone else. If you’re too scared to do this, let me leave you with this quote from one of the OGs, the great musical icon, Joni Mitchell, who said to Rolling Stone magazine:
“You have two options. You can stay the same and protect the formula that gave you your initial success. They’re going to crucify you for staying the same. If you change, they’re going to crucify you for changing. But staying the same is boring. And change is interesting. So, of the two options, I’d rather be crucified for changing. Leaders make art and artists lead.”
I’m not advocating for chaos or non-strategic change to claim you did it. I’m advocating for evolution. There ain’t no better time than now to update what you do. Bring on the new. Make your fans fall in love with you all over again.
Today, the best work and the best opportunities go to those who are hard to replace. This does that.
Your show should never be so comfortable with its success that it stops earning it. Keep evolving. Keep surprising people. That will keep giving listeners reasons to choose you. Because the very best opportunities go to people who are hard to replace. Make yourself one of them.