a real before and after
intentional branding, by rizza mae marvel

She didn't start over. She got found.

Rizza had already done the hard part. Fifty seven episodes over almost three years, real expertise, a business worth talking about. What she did not have was a show a stranger could find, or understand in three seconds. Here is what changed, and what happened next.

439 plays in almost three years, where she was in March 2026
1,205 downloads in the five months since, taking her to 1,644
66 countries listening
#2 on Apple for "branding for entrepreneurs"

The outside of the show

Same host. Same expertise. Same back catalog. A completely different first impression.

Intentional Branding cover art before the audit Before

The Intentional Branding Podcast A title that told you the name of the show, and nothing about who it was for or what it would do for them.

Intentional Branding cover art after the audit After

Intentional Branding | Brand Strategy & Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs The same show, named for the words her people actually type into the search bar.

How the show introduces itself on Apple

Before The Intentional Branding Podcast on Apple Podcasts before the audit, showing the old cover art, title and description
A designer sharing design tips. True, but it does not tell a stranger who the show is for or what it will do for them.
After Intentional Branding on Apple Podcasts after the audit, with the new cover art, expanded title and author line
Same show. Now the title and the author line both say exactly who it is for, in the words they are already searching.

What actually changed

Four things. None of them required a single new episode.

1The show name and author field

We put the words her ideal listener is already searching into the two fields Apple and Spotify weight most heavily. This is the single change that moved her onto page one.

2The cover art

Rebuilt so it reads at thumbnail size, where every listener actually sees it, and so it says who the show is for before they read a word.

3The show description

Rewritten to speak to one specific person with one specific problem, instead of describing the podcast to nobody in particular.

4The episode titles

Her back catalog was full of great episodes with titles nobody was searching for. We fixed the titles, and the old episodes started working again.

Her best episodes were already published. They were just invisible.

The receipts

Straight from her Captivate dashboard and Apple Podcasts.

Searching "branding for entrepreneurs" on Apple

Before Apple Podcasts search results for branding for entrepreneurs on March 3, 2026, with Rizza's show nowhere in the results
3 Mar 2026. Her show is not on this page at all. It was not on the next one either.
After Apple Podcasts search results for branding for entrepreneurs, with Intentional Branding ranking second
Same search, months later. Second result, above shows with far bigger audiences.

Her listener numbers

Before Spotify for Creators showing 439 all-time plays from April 2023 to March 2026
Spotify, all time, 3 Mar 2026. Four hundred and thirty nine plays across nearly three years of publishing. Look at how flat that line is.
After Captivate analytics showing 815 unique listeners and 1,205 downloads from February 27 to July 24, 2026
Her new host, 24 Jul 2026. One thousand two hundred and five downloads in five months, which takes her lifetime total to 1,644. The spikes on the right are what a findable show looks like.

Two different platforms, so this is not a like for like comparison. The Spotify number is Spotify only. The Captivate number counts every app her listeners use. What is the same is the show, the host, and the back catalog.

Rizza is a management client, so I did this work with her rather than handing her a list. A free audit gets you the same honest eyes on the same four things.

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