The biggest overhead is probably that it’s a huge time suck, and it’s not going to cover salaries. TR does a fairly professional job. I guess it would be cheaper to produce if it was just a lame zoom call like many YT podcasters do. Lining up the guests though would still be a time suck.
My guess is that they found the AACC podcast to be a nice, but probably small profit center.
Ivy is doing lots of interesting rides on Instagram…
I enjoy listening to Jonathon and I think he does a great job but I agree with lots of the comments about, my quotes, “ the good old days”
I wonder if , at least from my perspective, is that I wasn’t really into podcasts in the early days so this one really stood out. My cycling knowledge was rather low, especially from a training viewpoint and making the most of limited time, I definitely learned a lot.
But overall it’s the camaraderie.
I could make a comparison with Top Gear and the three presenters who left to present Grand Tour on Amazon. I think I’d give that a watch regardless of what particular car they driving through whichever country they’d chosen.
(For another, very niche podcast, there is a show called Star Wars Minute where they, wait for it, analyse the Star Wars films one minute at a time. So if you wanted to know the actors in minute 94, the different script choices etc then give that a listen. They’ve actually finished all of the films but I still enjoy listening to what they’ve been up to, and they do review Star Wars books and tv shows, anyway sorry for taking that off topic.)
I enjoyed the episodes with @IvyAudrain as well. She did a good job and her hot takes and rapid fire questions were great episodes to mix in now and then. Maybe some other TR employees can come on as regulars now that Nate isn’t on as much anymore? The two podcasts with @PeteMorris have been some of my favorite in recent memory.
Loved the old podcast, I did Leadville in 2019 and I couldn’t get enough! Their chemistry was great. I almost liked listening to the banter and race stories more than the cycling content.
I haven’t listened to the show much since Chad left, pretty much not at all in the last year. It’s just not the same. Still enjoying the product though!
I miss Chad’s deep dives which I know were controversial with 50% saying more deep dives and 50% saying less deep dives.
The thing is though, that they claim it’s their only marketing effort. The forum and articles (however outdated) are part of their marketing, too, but likely a smaller reach than the podcast. With a content-only marketing approach, I don’t know why the content and format isn’t more intentional. But, we don’t know their data. Maybe they don’t need to/want to increase new user adoption rates. Maybe the clickbait stuff is doing what they need.
Old school live ramp tests with Chad, Jonathon and Natew on the podcast 
Again I miss it and used to listen live when they came out, however companies and times change I guess.
Anyone remember beers with Chad?
Can we claim they are doing it for profit when they aren’t even monetized on YouTube? Not sure how to check other sources.
Oh, that’s interesting! I stand corrected. I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt that it was in some way a calculated change for marketing revenue.
It is still a brand awareness/top of the funnel marketing channel, though.
Oh yeah 100% making money from it by bringing in new customers.
The clickbait thumbs and titles are not for me, but if they are bringing in business hard to argue against. But they at least aren’t profiting from those clicks.
Edit: they can profit from the clicks if they want, not my say. Just it does change the intent in my mind.
100% this. I want TR to be successful and be able to choose their own destiny. The last thing this place needs is for TR to get bought by some other brand or, god forbid, private equity and become just some part of a larger portfolio.
I guess I have been listening since the “glory days” and will buck the trend by saying that I still really enjoy the podcast and think it’s an essential part of the trainerroad experience. I think one element that has been “lost” is the basic education about training with power - but this cannot really be recaptured for me personally since I have already learned so much. I wasn’t aware of another source of such high quality information back when I started listening. But it’s hard to criticize the podcast for not doing that anymore since it has basically done its job educating me! It is still just about the only podcast that I download right away when it is released and always listen to.
If I could get one thing back from the old podcasts it would be hearing about hosts training for something as (gifted) amateurs week to week. It’s nice to hear from pros and “successful athletes”, but it’s not as fun as the old days of Nate v Jonathan v Chad. Not necessarily just a race report, but all the ups and downs of aiming for a big goal. Maybe Nate and Jonathan will get into zwift racing (no concussions?). It would be fun to hear about racing up the ranks in the winter.
It would be an amazing series follow a person training using TR’s Zwift plan and learning Zwift racecraft.
I agree with you, this is what’s really missing. Both Amber and Chad understood that not everything should be taken at face value, that seems to have gotten lost with both their departures.
All the people in the same room also made a big difference.
I was watching an old one and Nate was making faces to Jonathan while Chad was talking.
I think that face to face dynamic is a dialog a major factor. They developed a rapport from knowing each other that carried over into the COVID-required online podcasts.
I agree with this. I think I started listening during COVID or right before COVID. I passed on it the first time I came across it because I wasn’t interested in indoor training. I eventually came back around to it and it convinced me to get into indoor training. I was deciding between Zwift and TR, and I went with TR because I felt like I owed it to them because of how I’ve consumed the podcast. I still listen each week and usually take at least a little from it, just entertainment while driving if nothing else.
adding a stache is definitely going to change a vibe.
A lot to cover on this one!
I want to assure all of you we are always trying to improve the podcast, just as we always try to improve everything we do. So feedback is greatly appreciated!
I do want to address some specific points for the intent of clarification:
As the host, I feel I should share insight to clarify/dispel.
The titles and thumbnails of the podcast are a result of the evolution of online media over the last 5 years. Platforms have algorithms that will make it very difficult for your content to gain circulation if you don’t actively seek to identify with a need of your desired audience with the thumbnail and title.
So the titles and thumbnails have nothing to do with the allegation of picking guests that only represent one perspective, or having an intentionally narrow point of view.
And on that note, please share examples of us having guests that are biased so we can learn from that. (That said, we are not going to have a guest on the podcast telling athletes to not eat carbs or to otherwise deprive themselves of nutrition 
)
We actually got a ton of positive feedback on that portion of that episode. But we agree, and as I said in that episode, plenty of other podcasts cover race news, so that’s why it was just a one-off as it was relevant to the guest, and apparently to the majority of our audience, based on feedback.
Man, I could not disagree with this more, but this is great feedback! I love racing, will likely race around 15 races this year, and very much care about getting faster, lol.
That said, whenever I talk about my racing we commonly receive feedback that people don’t like to hear it. I think the contrast with Nate’s journey positioned me as being skilled/talented in an non-relatable manner, but I think the folks I race against can confirm I’m just a normal guy!
Noted. In full transparency, I dropped the ball on 530 and didn’t focus enough on the cramping aspect. I’ll do better.
One tip with this is the timestamps. You can always look at those on YouTube or Spotify to find where the topic is addressed, or view them in the podcast description if your player doesn’t support timestamps.
Chad explained why he was no longer with the company and requested people respect that. I totally understand nostalgia for the relationship that listeners build with hosts, but this tone implies it was a flippant choice that can be reversed and it doesn’t respect Chad’s wishes.
This is incorrect. We don’t run ads on the podcast right now. We have done it in the past and would like to do that in the future, but maybe not for the reasons implied here. While this isn’t published from YT, it is generally agreed upon in the creator community that running ads on your content helps circulation. This makes logical sense as YT would be incentivized to deliver content that gives them additional revenue, but to be honest, we didn’t see a tight enough correlation to call it causation. But in full transparency, we aren’t running ads now due to a loooong fought battle with a technical issue with YT and our account. Rest assured that when we get this sorted and are running ads once again, the volume of views on our channel wouldn’t deliver the sort of revenue that would cause us to create content solely for ad revenue. If we did that, we wouldn’t be building trust with our viewers/listeners.
The podcast remains a priority marketing effort. The content and format is intentional. Our goal is to teach cyclists how to get faster, and we do this through answering the questions they submit and/or addressing topics that will help them.
Like you assumed later on, it is a great top of funnel marketing effort that allows cyclists the time to build a relationship of trust with TrainerRoad.
In terms of data, the podcast is still experiencing YoY growth despite a significant increase in podcast options compared to the early days back in 2014.
The marketing team is very small as we are a company that dedicates the majority of our resources to building, improving, and supporting our product.
We like this too! There’s just so much interest in Zwift. The minority against it is comparably vocal, but the numbers show it is of interest.
Can you share an example of the podcast displaying that everything should be taken at face value?
