Pet Peeves While Listening to a Podcast – PCI 360

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Lot of the technology that podcasters use to do dynamic ad insertion doesn't necessarily put it in the right place. You should specify a specific spot in your show, and if the platform you're using doesn't do that, it can really sound crappy. I, I hate it. You know, there's this podcast I listen to all the time 'cause the content is really good, but they're using some sort of inserted platform that just decides to put one right in the middle of a sentence. And it's just so frustrating. And then, you know, when it comes back, it's hard to follow.

Speaker 2 00:00:37 You're listening to Podcasts Insider, hosted by Mike Dell, Todd Cochrane, and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow and thrive through podcasting. All with the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in.

Speaker 3 00:00:58 I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist here at Blueberry.

Speaker 0 00:01:00 And I'm Mike Dell, VP of Customer Relations here at Blueberry.

Speaker 2 00:01:04 I'm Todd Cochrane, c e and co-founder of Blueberry Podcasting. So what annoys you when you listen to a podcast today? Or we will go over some of those, well, our pet peeves, and I'm sure you have just a few as well. You know, all three of us are our avid podcast listeners, and there are things that annoy each of us in our own way, and I'm sure we're not alone. But Mike, why don't you kick us off? What's, what's a thing that annoys you probably the most when you listen to a podcast?

Speaker 0 00:01:46 Yeah, my number one is bad audio. You know, and there's lots, lots of ways to have bad audio, so be careful with that. But, uh, you know, mainly audio that's inconsistent in volume. If I gotta reach for my volume knob while I'm listening to your show, I'm not gonna be a happy camper, , same thing as, you know, the host and the guest. Having different levels of audio or ads that pop in that are too soft or too loud. You know, I, I wanna set it and forget it and I wanna be able to hear it.

Speaker 2 00:02:21 I think that's probably something that annoys all of us. If it's up and down, up and down. McKenzie, I'm sure that you have a number one. What, what's, what's your number one?

Speaker 3 00:02:30 Yeah, it kind of is audio, but besides that, the first thing that I get annoyed with is when they're just saying things as fact that really have no basis or, you know, they're just, they're, they're claiming these sources that they are then not including . And I don't wanna have to investigate a podcast. I'm not gonna do that. I'm just gonna take you as someone I can't trust and move on .

Speaker 2 00:03:01 So you have to have a source to go along with whether commentary to basically for them to cite so that you can say, okay, this is what they're saying is indeed fact, not just some made up statistic. Yep.

Speaker 3 00:03:14 Essentially.

Speaker 2 00:03:15 I gotcha. I think my number one is really kind of goes back to podcast 1 0 1 topic. It's when I'm made to feel that I am being talked to and not part of the audience. You know, I, I think that it's, there's this, um, there's this trick and there's this key, and we as podcasters always have to remember that even the three of us when we're, when we're doing this, that there are people listening and we should be talking to them, not at them, you know, and, and having them be part of the conversation. So I basically went just made to feel that I'm not part of the podcast audience is, is a big annoyance to me. And I, that's what makes podcasting different than for so many other mediums.

Speaker 0 00:04:01 Yeah. You know, you're listening to like radio show or a seminar or something like that. That's a different thing than a podcast in most cases. You know, podcasters generally have a deeper connection to their audience and, you know, we want the audience to, to feel that, you know, you guys are all part of our audience here and you know, we'd like to hear from you. Of course, sometimes we may just be spouting off facts and figures, whatnot, but it doesn't happen all the time.

Speaker 2 00:04:33 You know, I use the example of sitting at a table, you know, and as to say, the three of us, and really we're kind of at a table right now, but we also have to remember that there's that fourth party and really that fourth party multiplied by how many people are listening to the show. We should always make that fourth party feel that they're part of the audience here. I think another thing that really annoys me, and, and believe me, I, you know, I, I can keep up with the best of 'em when it comes to, uh, swearing like a sailor because I was one, but, you know, I've learned to temper my, my language over the years and, but I feel that adult language in and podcasts has a place that really what annoys me is adult language in an appropriate content setting. So do you have to use that specific word you know, you're doing? I understand. You know, if you're doing a comedy show, I mean, okay, there's probably gonna be some racy words, but if you're doing a business show, do you have to drop the f-bomb every 10 minutes or, you know, that's,

Speaker 0 00:05:40 Well, it's the universal adjective, you know.

Speaker 2 00:05:43 I know, but it's still, it's, it's one of those things that if you're going, you have to portray your content as you want it to be perceived.

Speaker 3 00:05:50 Yeah. I mean, like you said, you used to swear like a sailor and people who I am ta like friends and family that I am talking, talking to in person are getting a different version of my vocabulary than on this podcast. Right. And, and you guys knowing me, are very aware of that

Speaker 2 00:06:08

Speaker 0 00:06:08 I've been in broadcasting on and off in bits and pieces and, you know, we were always taught that no cussing, if there's a microphone in the room, whether it's on or off. So if I'm gonna use some sort of expletive on a podcast, I, I almost have to force myself to do it.

Speaker 2 00:06:26 And some of it is just, I think age of the Creator often comes across and ah, you know, I'm just like, you're not helping yourself. Uh, but anyway, those are probably my two big ones. I know you both have have a pretty good list here. What's, what's Mike? What's another one of yours? Yeah.

Speaker 0 00:06:47 You know, and it's kind of the, in the same vein as the audio thing, it's, you know, when inserted ads are put in out of place, you know, a lot of the technology that podcasters use to do dynamic ad insertion doesn't necessarily put it in the right place. You should specify a specific spot in your show, and if the platform you're using doesn't do that, it can really sound crappy. I, I hate it. You know, there's this podcast I listen to all the time 'cause the content is really good, but they're using some sort of inserted platform that just decides to put one right in the middle of a sentence. And it's just so frustrating. And then, you know, when it comes back, it's hard to follow.

Speaker 2 00:07:31 And I think that goes along with that is, I listened to a show recently and I've never listened to political shows, but it was pretty highly rated. And I said, okay, I'll give it a listen because more enough just for homework to see the type of content format. And it, I'm not kidding you, about every six minutes there was an ad and it was, it was too many ads. I mean, I think it was, I was like, you've got to be kidding me.

Speaker 3 00:07:53 It detracts you from what has happened. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:07:55 It was just, the ad load was so high, I'll never listen to it ever again. I'll never go back.

Speaker 3 00:08:01 Like the best way I think is when it's a live read or even, you know, a prerecorded thing, but they have like an intro saying, this is the end of that segment. Thanks will come back after this thing or whatever. You know, there's a reason why TV and radio have these segments that go on for such and such amount of time, and then they're like, okay, this is the close of this scene or this, and then you go into something else, you have to factor it into the presentation.

Speaker 2 00:08:29 So Mackenzie, what's another of your, uh, pet peeves?

Speaker 3 00:08:32 Um, it was kind of reminding me when we were talking about swearing is the banter that people try to emulate. It's one of the things that everyone says like that co-hosts have to have, and that's why people like the show. And, and sometimes it is done really, really well, but I feel like I'm seeing it more often now just because people are like, oh, anyone can start a show. I'll do it with such and such. Just because like, it's easy that banter is not always like cute and nice. It's sometimes crossing the line into just, this is like now a public disagreement with your quote unquote friend. Well, it can

Speaker 0 00:09:09 Be distracting too, you know? Yeah. You know, if you're trying to provide entertainment or information or whatever, you know, going off the rails, you know, talking about something completely different or just trying to be cute again, it just doesn't work for some people.

Speaker 2 00:09:29 I think recently my co-host over on one of the shows I do him and I had a little banter back and forth where I was, I just dug my foot in, you know, and the audience were quite entertained and I think they tuned in the next episode to see if it would continue. But it's not necessarily good for the show to have that type of activity going on on a regular basis.

Speaker 0 00:09:50 This agreement is fine. That's, that's not a big deal. I think, you know, when it's just they're doing it just to do it rather than, you know, deeply held beliefs or whatever. You know, it all depends on the show. Of course.

Speaker 3 00:10:06 Well, actually, one of the other things that I don't like is I feel like I'm seeing it more so with video shows or like the video clip, you know, whatever soundbite is showing up on my social media feed of people who realize that like, the funny mistakes that they're making are turning out to be like the best parts of the show and the sound, the quote unquote, like sound bites. And you can now see people are like scripting them and like planning these ahead of time and it's not original and it's not authentic. And it's like you're a podcaster who has never actually acted or taken and like, you don't know what you're doing and in terms of your face and like, it's very obvious sometimes that this is a bit, and now I'm like, okay, well now I just don't care at all.

Speaker 2 00:11:00 Well, they don't have to dig too far on any of this content we do to find a bit that's not, not scripted. I think we all, like I commonly say on my tech show, I say I, I have a tendency to slaughter the English language from time to time. Yeah. Well

Speaker 0 00:11:15 That's all part of your show.

Speaker 2 00:11:16 They call 'em Todds, there's even a saying for it in the show. So yes,

Speaker 3 00:11:21 You had a very good one last month at our all hands on deck team meeting. But we can't repeat it here because like we were saying about swear words,

Speaker 0 00:11:31 Yes. Wrote that down somewhere. . We'll use that someday.

Speaker 2 00:11:37 So about how about you Mike? What's, what else is on your list? Well,

Speaker 0 00:11:40 You know, live being one of the things that a lot of people are doing now, you know, live video specifically, but even, you know, or a regular show, if a co-host and a host are talking about something visual that they can see, but you can't mm-hmm. and they're not good at describing it, you know, give the listeners link or a place to find what you're talking about, you know, at the beginning of the subject or the beginning of the show or whatever. So that if you're gonna discuss something visual, either be good at describing it or do something other than just say, Hey, yeah, that was really cool.

Speaker 2 00:12:20 I have a sticker on my monitor because I've been doing live for so long. that says, remember they're listening.

Speaker 3 00:12:27 That's a good one. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:12:29 It, it helps me when I'm, when I am talking about something I've seen on the, on the internet or what, you know, if it's a visual thing where, oh you gotta see this. Always basically try to describe and then of course make sure I follow up with, for the listening audience. The link to what I'm talking about is in the show notes. Go check it out. So it's hard sometimes 'cause we're very visual people and when you're doing live video, you, you have to remember that the majority of the audience is still listening.

Speaker 3 00:13:00 I'm not really a fan of live shows, like they're at a venue or doing something like that and they're recording live with the audience there. I usually hate it for the most part because I think that like they're having this interaction with the proper audience in front of them right now, like that live audience and it comes across to the op to like the podcast audience afterwards that like, it's distracted and the audio is probably not all that great. It's just, it's not an enjoyable thing to listen to. Usually on the, on the other end,

Speaker 2 00:13:43 One thing I do is if audience member checks in while we're live and says hi, I will say hi back and remind folks that they're watching the live stream. And at the same time, if someone has a comment that they leave in the chat, then I will read that comment verbatim. And then, because they can't vis, you know, they can't physically speak to me, the audience can't obviously. So I, I just, you know, I voice it and then respond to it. That's the only way that, uh, the audience can still feel engaged.

Speaker 3 00:14:16 Mike, what about you?

Speaker 0 00:14:18 Oh, well, uh, yeah, it just live's, okay. You know, you guys do the new media show live at some venues and you know, I listen to those a lot of times in the audience or I watch live or something like that. But, uh, you know, they're okay. But it's not as exciting to your normal listeners as it is to, you know, the people that are there and

Speaker 2 00:14:43 Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 0 00:14:44 Watching live.

Speaker 2 00:14:44 Yeah. And the audio is usually not as great either 'cause you're in a big venue.

Speaker 0 00:14:49 Certainly, you know, you know, of course technical things go sideways and , you know, it's never perfect.

Speaker 2 00:14:55 Yep. Mike, you got another pet pee?

Speaker 0 00:14:58 Yeah. Unfocused topics. You know, I, I remember back when podcasting first started, it was not uncommon to hear somebody say, well, I don't know what I'm gonna talk about today. Here I'm recording and you know, like, really, you know, and I did that , but now, you know, I do a little show prep, you know, like for this show we have some bullet points and whatnot. We usually plan out what we're gonna talk about. We don't say it word for word or anything, but, you know, it's, it's good to stay on your topic, at least in segments. You know, if you're gonna talk about 10 different things, we'll talk about 10 different things, but don't go from thing one to three thing seven and back to one and then back to then over to two, and then back to three and you know, , that kind of thing.

Speaker 3 00:15:44 Yeah. A friend group, you know, round table podcast is kind of like my worst nightmare. Yeah,

Speaker 0 00:15:51 Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:15:54 . So Mackenzie, how about you? What else is on, uh, on your stack?

Speaker 3 00:15:59 Let me see here. So , there's, okay, I've been listening to this American life for I don't know how long, very long time. But recently I was listening to an episode with a guest who I listened to her podcast, I loved it. And I was kind of excited about this topic and this episode and a big portion of the segment with them was, you know, recorded like in someone's house and was a conversation between two people and someone was eating and I wanted to die. Like, I think I just stopped the episode. I couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 00:16:37 Yeah. Chomping in someone's ear is not cool. Now I'll have a some water at the table and if I need to take a, you know, a little, little H two o I will turn my head to make sure my mouth is away from the microphone completely.

Speaker 3 00:16:51 Exactly.

Speaker 0 00:16:53 Yep. I just took a drink right there,

Speaker 2 00:16:55 So. Yep. But eating no way, you know, chomping on some food,

Speaker 3 00:16:59 It was like the entire conversation that they were having was in while they were like eating dinner or something like that. And yeah, I just, I couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 00:17:07 Or the person came in for lunch to do the interview, you know? Right. So I Oh yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 00:17:13 I can't do it.

Speaker 2 00:17:14 Not a good look. Mike, anything else in your list?

Speaker 0 00:17:18 Yeah, one of my bigger ones is not necessarily about the podcast itself, but if I go to your website and I get a popup right away, I, I I'm gonna bounce more times than not. 'cause you know, I don't know you yet, you know, let me look at the site first before popping something in my face. Usually it's sign up for my newsletter. Well, I get signed up for so many dang newsletters, don't read them all. So not probably going to sign up for yours and especially if you pop it in my face, .

Speaker 2 00:17:50 Yeah. And I think that goes along and it's really not about the show content itself, but if I've had an interaction with you one time via email, don't add me to your mailing list automatically, .

Speaker 3 00:18:00 Yeah, that's

Speaker 2 00:18:01 True. Because it happens with all of us. You know, we, I have to purge about every 90 days, you know, the list I get added to and we love our customers, but please,

Speaker 3 00:18:12 It's the events that do it. Yeah. 'cause anyone that scans us is, you know, adding us to their list and then it's like I have, I have truly no idea what this is about.

Speaker 2 00:18:22 I get added to shows all the time. Yeah, I do too. People that I get talked to that, you know, I've done a consult with them and you know, I love talking to you, but don't need to be on your mailing list. I don't have time for it.

Speaker 3 00:18:34 Well, yeah, that pop-up, you know, translates over to how you feel about their show. It's not just how you feel about their website. It, it translates over to I'm just annoyed with this person and now their show.

Speaker 2 00:18:46 Yeah. And I think what it is, is too, is if you think about it from a discovery standpoint, if you on your show and you say, listen, hey, if you wanna go to my mailing list, go over to dot.com/mailing list and sign up, then that's giving an action to your audience. But if I'm discovering, think about someone brand new that's coming to your website for the first time and they land on your website and they read like two words off your website and boom, the big popup happens and says, Hey, you know, sign up for my course or sign up for my mailing list. You're like, who are you? You know, and why should I pay attention to you? I'm trying to get, like Mike said, I'm trying to get to know you. I'm the same way. I, I either back out or I x the tab and I'm gone. I feel, I feel maybe it's, maybe it's an age thing. I feel it's pretty rude.

Speaker 0 00:19:36 Yeah. I have a, you know, in support we get, you know, you know, we get to go to somebody's website and you know, they ask us, you know, what do you think of this? What do you think of that on the website? And it'll pop up in my face and it's like, you know, I will suggest to them, I said, well, you know, you might think about taking that pop out bout and well, it's working. Yeah, okay, you get 20 signups, but I bet you you drive 50 people away,

Speaker 2 00:20:06 More like two or three out of a hundred react the rest people because, you know, you just have to look at it from your exit data in Google Analytics to see how many people are actually leaving your page once that, once that popup happens. But yeah, again, it is kind of my, one of my pet peeves as well. But not necessarily about the audio content.

Speaker 0 00:20:26 One that we didn't have on the list about podcast websites is no contact information. You know, if you want people to give you feedback, you gotta have a way for them to do it.

Speaker 2 00:20:40 I've had my primary email address, my Gmail address on my website for as long as Gmail's been in existence. And I don't end up with a bunch of spam because of it's there. They're gonna get me from different locations, they're gonna get, they're gonna spam me from other other venues, not from the website. So I always have a way for people to contact me. It's that, you know, that instantaneous click, either contact form, I'm cool with that or an email address. Either one is good.

Speaker 3 00:21:08 You know, something else that bugs me is when you go to listen to some type of interview show and the, uh, the person that's doing the interview has done no homework, done no prep or the prep that they have done is what every other single person has done before. So nothing is actually new. It looks like you've done prep, but you've done exactly what every single other interview has done so far. I listened to a show recently with that. It's just, I listened to an episode of Smartlist for this actor that I liked and I was like, okay, cool, I'll listen to this. I've never listened to that show anymore because it's just another like celebrity host show. I don't really care to get into another one of those. But I was like, I'll give this one a shot. I, it was just 40 minutes of banter about things I've heard before.

Speaker 2 00:22:01 You know, I've not, I don't consider myself at all a celebrity, obviously we're all known in the podcasting space, but I'll go on podcasts to do an interview and I will often get asked the same questions again and again, I don't mind answering them and being enthusiastic about doing it because I know that for most shows it's a non duplicative audience. People will be hearing from or about me or about blueberry for the first time. So I don't have an issue with that. Every once in a while someone will send me emails, said, Hey, I listen to both these shows and, you know, that same type of feedback comes back, but I have little control of being the interviewee of what people will ask. And um, I I think it's, it's a challenge if you're on a lot of shows that duplicate manner doesn't, you know, has a tendency to happen, but you're just hoping that the audiences are non duplicated. But Mackenzie, were you search seeking out specific interviews on that particular person? Were were you searching for interviews?

Speaker 3 00:23:09 No, I wasn't searching for them, but it was just showing up saying, this is a new episode and I was like, oh, I like that person. I'll listen to this one. And I was like, oh, this is Wikipedia page.

Speaker 2 00:23:23 Gotcha.

Speaker 3 00:23:23 Of what they've done.

Speaker 2 00:23:24 I think we've done interviews before and not, and not interviews, but I think we've done episodes before where we've talked about try to find four or five nuggets that someone else hasn't talked about. Maybe listen to an interview and capitalize on something that the interviewee wanted to go down but was not allowed to by the host. I think sometimes there's gold in those hills when you listen to other interviews of the person you're going to interview as well and you'll know now what to ask. You know, the 82nd time

Speaker 0 00:23:51 There is, uh, you know, a lot of these celebrities and people who get interviewed a lot, love it when you come up with a question nobody asks before I hear that, you know, from really good interviews like, uh, you know, believe it or not, uh, what's his name? Uh, now I'm drawing a blank. The guy in New York on xm,

Speaker 2 00:24:13 Uh, stern

Speaker 0 00:24:14 Stern Howard Stern , he will come up with some sort of question that this person has never heard before. And you know, he's a master at it, you know, he might not like him otherwise, but he's a master interviewer

Speaker 2 00:24:31 And you know, he, he does have a team that's researching questions and topics, which is good, but at the same point, he's very well read and knows who he's going to be talking to. So he's done some prep as Mackenzie says, do some prep, we'll learn a little bit. You read the Wikipedia page read and that way you don't have to ask when was your first movie, you'll be able to say, I understand your first movie was such and such, or whatever it may be. You can just say that without having to waste time asking a question that if you already know it, you can relay it to the audience and probably the audience knows already anyway.

Speaker 3 00:25:03 Yeah. Ask a question associated to what you already know. Yeah,

Speaker 2 00:25:07 Exactly. So it makes it a little interesting. We're definitely getting into interview techniques right now. Is there any other things that annoy us when we listen to other shows?

Speaker 3 00:25:19 Just recently in the past couple years? I am just, I'm going shorter and shorter with the episodes that I listen to. There's only a handful of shows that I will listen to that are like 45 minutes plus everything else I would prefer to have be a half hour. That's only started in the past like two or three years. I think I just got overwhelmed with the amount of stuff out there that kind of felt unpolished and a waste of 45 minutes when I know it could be 35 or 30 or something like that. Also probably correlates to not having a commute anymore.

Speaker 0 00:25:57 Yeah. I go back and forth between listening to the long shows or short shows. It just depends on what I'm doing. You know, if I'm driving, I wanna listen to the long shows, but if, you know, I'm just running errands around town, I, you know, 15 minute shows probably great.

Speaker 2 00:26:14 I think it goes back to that adage, don't waste listeners' time. So if you're, if you're done talking about what you're done talking about, then then get out, let 'em move on to something else. And maybe that's where we're even at with this.

Speaker 0 00:26:27 So, speaking of which,

Speaker 2 00:26:28 Yeah, because I think we don't want to just drag things out for the sake of dragging them out and being longer. And I even feel that way with the show I do with, uh, with Rob sometimes we're at the 60 or 75 minute mark and I'm like, okay, my, uh, my cup is empty here. You know, let's, let's, let's get outta here and not waste. All that needs

Speaker 0 00:26:47 To be said has been said.

Speaker 2 00:26:48 That's right. Let's get outta here. Let's do it. We'll come back next week with something fresh. So I think that's good advice in the long run is just don't waste listeners' time. So anything else you wanna talk about this,

Speaker 0 00:27:00 If you have 10 minutes worth of content, don't do a 15 minute podcast.

Speaker 2 00:27:05 There you go. Yeah. So what do you find annoying? We'd love to hear from you. Our contact information is in the outro. Definitely drop us a line and don't forget about all the services we provide and getting support or doing the one-on-ones. Those are important to us. And uh, feel free to reach out. You have a topic that we haven't covered. Let us know that as well, Mike and Mackenzie. Anything else?

Speaker 0 00:27:29 No. Have see you next week. Sounds good. Thanks.

Speaker 2 00:27:33 Thanks for joining us. Come back next week and in the meantime, head to podcast insider.com for more information to subscribe, share, and read our show notes. Check out the latest suite of services and learn how blueberry can help you Leverage your podcast. Visit blueberry.com. That's blueberry without the ease because we can't afford the ease.