Quit Being So Dang Agreeable
I recently had a dialogue via Voxer with my colleague, Jim Lambie, who recently took over the hosting duties for the Musicpreneur podcast.
Jim recently did an interview with a fellow named Danny Ziemann, who has made a bit of a name for himself as one who specializes in the business side of music. And in an effort to help Jim understand the role of a podcast host, I offered a bit of feedback the interview.
In essence, my feedback was to quit being so dang agreeable!
People listen to podcasts because they want to be challenged, they want to think about things in ways they haven’t considered. A conversation with two people basically saying, “I agree with you 100%” gets old real quick – and does little, if anything, to stimulate any type of contrarian points of view.
A good podcast host will do a bit of research, find out what the guest is about, their views on things, and also what questions have they answered on other podcasts – assuming they’ve been on other podcasts.
So that was the gist of what I said to Jim.
Jim asked for a little clarity on what I had said. “Do we deliberately look for things to push back on?” Essentially he was wondering if I meant to deliberately stir the pot just for the sake of creating controversy, using the “if it bleeds, it leads” non-principle of attracting an audience.
It was an honest and fair question. I’m the first to admit there’s a temptation to get on the defensive when you’re criticized, or to use an emotional topic to get into the limelight for roughly 5 minutes on Instagram when you have any type of media platform such as a podcast.
However, there is a principled approach to controversy or “stirring the pot” for lack of a better term that will both make the guest look good, as well as set one’s self apart in the crowded online space.
I thought I would share what I said to Jim with y’all as it can be applied to pretty much any type of brand-building endeavor in one way or another.
BTW, if you want to connect with me on Voxer, my username is: jamesnewcomb