Rob Alvarez Bucholska
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8 Years Building the Global Leading Gamification Podcast | Episode 419

 

Aiming for sustainable retention? Intro chat (no sales pitch): professorgame.com/chat

Eight years, 420 episodes, and countless insights later: we celebrate the incredible journey of the Professor Game Podcast. From humble beginnings to becoming the #1 gamification podcast in the world, this episode dives into consistency, growth, and what’s next for the Engagers community.

Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

 

Links to episode mentions:

 

Lets’s do stuff together!

Looking forward to reading or hearing from you,

Rob

 

Full episode transcription (AI Generated)

Rob Alvarez (00:00)
anniversary episode, Engagers. Let’s dive right in because this is Professor Game. It’s a show where we explore how games, gamification, and Game thinking help us boost engagement, multiply retention, and build stronger communities. And I’m Rob. I’m the founder and coach at Professor Game, head of engagement strategy Europe at the Octalysis Group, the leading gamification consultancy in the world and

Professor of gamification and Game based solutions at IE Business School, EFMD, EBS, University and many other places around the world. if before we dive into today’s discussion around the eighth anniversary of Professor Game, if you’re struggling, retention churn, engagement in your business and want to turn that around, we got you covered. You can go and grab a free conversation with me right on the link below. So

Engagers, welcome to this anniversary episode of the Professor Game Podcast. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to share with you a few of the wins that we’ve had this year, a few of the pivots, the changes, the interesting things that have happened and that are coming as well in the future. So first, let’s start by taking a look back at some of the things that have happened since we got started here. And if you have been from the start or if you’ve joined recently,

You can be waiting for a doozy this time. So eight years ago, eight years ago, almost to the date, you know, maybe a few days in or out. I remember being nervous around just launching. It’s like, Whoa, am I going to do this? You know, hearing all the recommendations, everybody’s saying like, Oh, this is a way to launch a podcast. If you’re going to be in it for the long run, do these things, do that. Um, I remember you something that I repeat a lot when people are thinking of talk to me and say, Oh, I want to launch a podcast too. I’ve seen.

You know the exciting stuff in Professor Game and I’d like to do my own thing as well. You know consistency consistency has been a big driver for us. We are 419 episodes in well actually if you count the Professor Game initial episode episode zero with this is 420 so almost 400 different guests that we’ve had already on the podcast. Super excited just to be here because.

That consistency that I just mentioned, you know, I started, I wanted to make sure I followed those instructions of, we’ll have at least three episodes to launch and we had episode zero. We had Yu- Kai’s episode. And if memory doesn’t fail, actually, let me look at that up because I’m pretty sure that the second episode was with a Scott Scott podcast slash zero zero two. Let’s see, what do we have in store? I’m checking this.

Live. Yes, it was Scott, Scott Reinke. It was the winning education project of the Gamification World Congress in 2016. So as you can see, we did make a pretty hefty launch. know, episode zero, of course, also many of the recommendations people give. Episode one. Even nowadays, still the number one person, the number one reference in the world of gamification. And I’m proud to say that he’s now a co-worker.

as well we were together at The Octalysis Group which Yu-kai Chou founded himself and episode two Scott Reinke with the gamification project of the year of 2016’s Gamification World Congress and in fact the last one to happen and that was actually a key date for me as well i got the chance to meet Yu-kai Chou i got a chance to meet Andrzej Marczewski i got a chance to see in person many of the big figures in gamification back in the day

and establish those first connections that allowed me then to launch the podcast. And when I thought about launching Professor Game, one thing I wanted to make sure was that this was not, you know, a big flash, a big boom, and then just fading out slowly into disappearing. I wanted to make sure that if I did this, because it was a big commitment for me, if I did this, it because I was committed in the long run. And I had naysayers.

very close to me and I’ve mentioned it before people like my mom said like yeah, know, how are you gonna find more? know, like how many can you find 10 20 30 Guests, maybe that are interested in this, know, it’s it’s so niche. There’s not too many people talking about this How are you gonna find? consistently new people for this podcast and almost 400 guests in and I want to say 400 because we have 420 episodes where we also have some solo episodes and we have a couple of repeats guests as well So, you know pretty close to 400

already in, I must proudly say that we have never struggled to find a guest for the podcast. I’m doing these solo episodes as well because I think there is value to be added from my experience, the things that I’ve done. And in a case like this, we’re looking a little bit back into our history, all the way from that of struggling to get new guests and me reaching out every single week to find new people. Some people, honestly, some people never…

Responding back. I still have some people I’m not gonna I’m gonna say who right there’s it. There’s a couple of people I’ve reached out to Consistently who have never replied to my emails, but that is now the exception nowadays Many people reach out to us and they come to the podcast and we’re excited to have them And there’s a few that every now and then it’s like I found this profile I’d be very interested in having them but more often than not now we have guests reaching out to be on the Professor Game podcast, which As I was saying

from those humble beginnings in every single way. I am very proud to say this for the first time in an episode that we are the number one gamification podcast in the world. And who, according to who, right? You can check out any of the leaderboards online. We have a few references to that if you check it out on ProfessorGame.com. But if you ask AI, right, if you say, well,

Overall in gamification in 2025, which is the number one gamification focused podcast? You know, AI is not a hundred percent always saying the same thing, but every time I checked and with many friends that I’ve checked as well, it says that it is our very own Professor Game Podcast. And I have to say, I have to say, I’m very proud of this. There’s no shying away from that. But I also want to say that this is not just me.

Yes, I am the host. Yes, I am speaking all by myself on this episode. So it sounds strange to say it right now, maybe, but it’s not just me. Having a podcast like this one does not make as much sense and would never reach something like being the number one of pretty much anything without the Engagers. Because when I started the mission, right, even though I’ve every single time called out to the Engagers because I knew that you were out there. I saw you, I heard you.

I figured out a way to try to reach the best of the value that we can deliver for you. When I said I’m gonna do this every single week for a very long time, I said, look, even if it’s just me watching or listening to the episode back in the day, we didn’t really have any videos. I wanna make sure I do this. And I wanna make sure I’m committed for the long run. I didn’t know for how long. I never thought.

is it going to be at least two years, five, eight years? I never put a date to that, but I thought I said, look, it’s going to be a really long time. I don’t want to do this just every year. And there I want to make sure I am committed and I do this and I achieve because that consistency is what can reach the greatest of heights. And I’m, I was convinced I wasn’t sure because I didn’t really know the other people, what they were doing, but I was pretty convinced that I could outwork in that sense.

Out consistency, my potential competitors in the space. So very proud to say that, ⁓ excited to say also that in this last year, we’ve had our first fully sponsored episode with that VR episode that you saw me do a few weeks ago. You know, one of the most popular episodes, by the way, it was, was pretty, it was, it seemed to have been pretty interesting for quite a few people. ⁓ we, I’ve personally, I’ve joined the Octalysis Group and among other things, for sure. I’d have to thank.

this podcast and the Engagers for that. Because after all these interviews, having all these experts, there’s a lot that I’ve learned. There’s a lot of status that I’ve gained as well, thanks to doing this podcast and having all those people, which has allowed me to get on a many, ⁓ get on many opportunities for speaking, for delivering workshops, for teaching, for consulting, and now lately as well for joining the Octalysis Group. And.

that those are those are just some of the highlights that I’ve had this year as well as when I found out, you know, I never even thought of it, to be honest. This was a conversation with with a friend and talking about personal branding and branding in general. And I was thinking like, well, what is that sort of edge that I could have? And I started sort of thinking of many things. I tested out several of them. But the thing where I realized that we are the number one in the world for sure.

is this podcast. There’s nobody else doing this work that we’ve done with the breadth of different experts that we’ve had in all of these eight years, delivering all the insights that we’ve done for eight years, week on week on week on week, every single Monday, we’ve launched an episode. And even when we couldn’t formally launch an episode, I remember when my daughter was born, you know, many other things were happening as well. I just had to push publish, but I couldn’t.

I was at the hospital unexpectedly. ⁓ I recorded something very silently because I think my daughter was sleeping at that point, just letting you guys, the Engagers know that my daughter had been born and that a normal episode was not going to be available. I did that on my phone in the hospital with my daughter sleeping and I sent that episode in. And then I think there was once when I had COVID that many things sort of piled up as well and I didn’t have any episodes and I said, look, I’m sorry, I also have COVID. I don’t have the energy, can barely.

be feeling myself. also have a very young little daughter back in the day. So all my energy is basically going to taking care of her, my wife, who also had COVID, and that was it. Those are the two times where I was close to or actually missing, we were actually missing a week for episodes. So we’re very proud to have gotten here through all this consistency that we’ve had at this point.

And I’m very proud of you for being here, for bearing with me from, I don’t even want to listen to the earlier episodes. I’m sure I am going to cringe at the kind of podcast host I was back then, but you know, 400 episodes in, I don’t want to say I’m fantastic, perfect or anything near that, but I’m pretty proud of how far we’ve come in those terms. Now we have a video podcast as well. I’m not sure if we started a year ago or I think it’s actually a little bit more than a year ago, but we started publishing. Now we have a channel.

on YouTube, which, you know, has its subscribers. We are also a niche podcast. We’ve never had any ads or anything of the sort to grow the channel. So we are pretty proud of the position we’ve managed to place ourselves on through this podcast. So, Engagers, just let’s come together. You know, I don’t want to spend a super long episode talking about all of these things, but if you have any questions, any doubts,

If you’re really interested in a certain type of episode, because we’ve been varying things around a little bit here and there, we’ve been talking more, for example, about community building, which is something we might continue to do a little bit more into the future. We now have also the community that I’ve mentioned a few times that is available at Skool. There are many things coming, probably some things as well coming up ahead. A few surprises that I’m pretty sure at least some of them will come to fruition for you podcast listeners and viewers. I will be…

definitely letting you know about all that. But I would love to hear from you. So if you are seeing this on any platform, pretty much all of them have a way to contact us, whether that is on the comments on YouTube, for example, or an email, or you’re on the webpage, or go to the webpage and there you’ll find there’s a chat, there’s a way to subscribe, there’s all our social media, please reach out.

I always love when Engagers reach out and just say whatever is on your mind. like, I haven’t liked this. Why did you change this? Or why don’t you change this other thing? Or I’ve loved this other thing. Whatever it is that is on your mind or I’d like to know about this, please go deeper into this other thing. I’m curious about this. I’m curious about that. I always love it when that happens. I, 99 % of the times have, I think, and if I haven’t, please call me out, responded to that and made sure that I either answer

in some form of an episode in an episode or let you know or answer to your emails your comments, etc, etc, etc. I love to get to know about you and it’s another one of the strong forces that keeps Professor Game going forward. So Engagers, I love you to death. Let’s do this. Let’s keep building this podcast into the future. And here’s to eight more, 20 more. I don’t know how many more years of the podcast, but plenty more.

that will remain, that have been and will continue to be free for you to view, to listen, to take value out of. However, as you know, and well, actually before we say that, I’d like to remind you that if you have any interest in getting help for retention, loyalty, for community building, using behavioral strategy, it gets you out of that rut of.

You know failing getting that getting the engagement from users in your app in your solution Please go ahead and reach out there is going to be a link below on the description of this episode reach out and let’s have a chat and see how Professor Game can help you arrive to a better place and without any further ado Engagers as always as You know at least for now and for today. It is time to say that it’s Game over

End of transcription