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From Cordoba Spain

From Cordoba Spain

Christy Pritchard & Matt Cundill
April 03, 2024

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Where Has Matt Been?
Stop Doing This!
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I’m in Cordoba, Spain. In 2022 we mapped out a trip that landed us on a festival weekend “Cruces de Mayo” where the city comes to life for summer, the women put flowers in their hair and party’s fill the plazas.

We wound up staying at a really cool boutique hotel called “Patio des Posadero”… (See their website here) and we have come back twice since.

Lisa owns the hotel along with her husband Jose. She had a podcast that revolves around the community of the hotel.

El Podcast - De Patio Del Posadero

She asked me this week, “Should I even bother with guests?”

I have a lot to say about having guests on your show. Of the nearly 400 episodes of my show, 97 percent of them have a guest on it. I love chatting with people and interviewing people is something I have done since I was 5 years old. I’m really good at interview people… because I love it.

Now the Hot Takes on Guests:

I cringe when I see someone in a community newsgroup bitch that their guest did not promote or share the episode. That’s not their job… it is your job as the creator to promote your show. The minute they are obligated to do that, they are no longer a guest – they are your co-creator. By the way, did you give the guest a reason to share the episode? Maybe the episode sucked? Maybe they thought they sucked? (A lot of people are uncomfortable with the sound of their own voices and may not think they did well) Did you make them a nice people of social media to share? Did you offer a reel for to post to make them look like a superstar? Because making them into a superstar is what you are supposed to do with guests.
If you are trying to build your audience through the popularity of your guests… takes two weeks off, then quit. You should be growing your show by finding guests that will bring value to your audience.
Beware of podcasters who think that getting a big guest on the show is going to bring you fame fortune and riches. In fact – the problem with having a big guest on you show is that people are already familiar with their body of work and often there is little to more that you can add that is going to change lives. I would love to have Gordon Ramsay on my podcast – but people are already consuming him at least once weekly. I would need to ask very specific questions to separate myself from everything he does on Fox TV. Will you get more audience? Yes… for one episode. Not the long lasting results you want.
Do regular listeners of your show for your guests or the host? It’s the second one.
Booking guests is not easy. One of the tools I use to make it easier is called ScheduleOnce. It gives flexibility to the guest to choose a time that works for them. Calendly is a similar tool a lot of people use. If you want to have a guest on the show – make it as easy as possible to connect, and as hard as possible to say no.
If people don’t want to be on your show, don’t take it personally. Yes there are people who have said no to being on my show. Sometimes the timing is wrong… but I love re-asking a year later just in case they have changed their mind.
Solo recording tips: I am a voice actor so I am pretty comfortable loosely scripting things and reading them conversationally. Or as Samara Freemark (Managing Producer for investigative podcast In the Dark, from The New Yorker) once suggested: “Script Conversationally”. However, there is the Evo Terra method. He told me on my show .. https://bit.ly/36gjuIx... that he would record himself in the mirror as if he was giving a presentation. I have to admit – it sounded pretty good when he did his show “Podcast Pontifications”.
Speaking of Guests…..

Sound Off podcast this week is Sarah Christie. It’s been nearly 10 years since I programmed music… how much has changed?

Listen here!

Where Have I Been This Week?

Actually it was a quiet week of listening as I spent the week either voicing things or battling Storm Nelson which drenched the south of Spain.

But I found this conversation with Sam Sethi and Gautam Raj Anand from Hubhopper about podcasting in India to be a interesting.

Listen here!!

STOP DOING THIS!

You can stop promoting that your show is on the Google Podcasts App…. The App is disappearing today or tomorrow or sometime this week. Time update your website and any promos you have in circulation.

And while I am here – those of you who are still telling people to get their podcast on iTunes… it’s called Apple Podcasts… and you were supposed to make that change in 2018.