Following on from my previous posts, I thought you would all be interested in seeing some cases of unsuitable guests who have contacted me for either Spoken Label or Reading in Bed and see what they did that was completely wrong in their approach work.
Podcasting is a great experience when you research the Podcast you wish to be on properly. I’ve being on two recently, one of which has just being released to great reviews and another is to follow shortly, and I’ve three more lined up for the autumn months, but as a Podcast host and co-host, for every gold nugget you may get, there does seem to be a increasing number of people who do not research you properly and the examples I will to include are just three examples of bad research / not reading guidelines or just being plain lazy.
First of all, please note for fairness I will not name their names but will publish their messages in full as much as possible to give you a idea of what they did.
1) I am a member of a few groups on facebook, and occasionally this throw up surprises but one gentleman I discovered recently went through roughly around the last two months worth of posts, and commented beneath each one, Hi, I have wrote a very interesting book and would like to come on your Podcast. I got a message off him in my other messages on facebook saying he had seen my post on the Podcast group (Notice the word the Podcast group) and was incredibly vague about his book he wanted to talk about. I said I don’t talk about this on facebook and asked him to email and received this email
“My name is ******* and I help people use spirituality and breathing techniques for their next big thing, by believing in the universe and also providing career advice.
From understanding the effects of positivity, breathing exercises and belief in the connectivity of the universe.
The topic will revolve around focusing on positive thoughts, by connecting your third eye with the universe so that you can start believing in yourself and achieve success.
– To let the process be in the hands of the universe, because whatever it comes back with, there is a reason behind it.
– To have a positive outlook and surround yourself with good vibes, not focus on your wishes only or your demands from life.”
Of course this is not of interest to any of the Podcasts (Spoken Label, Reading in Bed, Comics Unity etc) so I advised him of the case, and suggested researching his targeted Podcast more only to receive this in response
“Dear Mr. Npoet,
Thank you for responding back to my email. I really appreciate it.
Looking forward to staying in touch with you.”
I am expecting another email off him some-point in the future over a similar kind of book and he will get the same message possibly a bit stronger.
Doesn't mean I will put him on Spoken Label or anything else I am involved in of course.
**
2) As mentioned before, I have being a member on Matchmaker.fm for around a year or so now and have gathered some great guests off it, however for every great guest we get, we get one who is even unsuitable or does not do themselves any favours atall with how they use the website.
One example was a person who I will call for this ‘R’ who got in touch asking “Hey,I would love to be on your podcast!”
This itself isn’t much help as you may have guessed from the opening covering message, so I would then have a look at their profile that states “Hey,I am a teen looking to improve my communicating skills and get some exposure along the way!” “
Yep, not much help again so I dropped them a message in response “Hi R. To be honest, your profile gives nothing so I can’t say yes or no. You may want to expand this a lot as not being horrible, you’re struggle to get on many Podcasts with such a brief profile. Come back to me when you have and I’ll consider it.”
The gentleman in question then responded by saying “Okay, I’ll get to work on it”
Three months later, I still haven’t had a response to this nor have they bothered improving their profile. A bad move, I know.
**
3) What also happens on matchmaker.fm are people who don’t read your guidelines and send messages clearly not reading guidelines what you are looking for on your Podcast. Reading in Bed, my joint book review Podcast with Amanda has this stated clearly on our profile:
“** THIS IS NOT A PODCAST FOR GUESTS TO COME ON. THIS IS A BOOK REVIEW PODCAST. If you wish us to consider any of your books – please look at our archives for books we review to see if the kind of book we read and review is yours before you contact us to save unnecessary correspondence.
We welcome fiction and poetry authors if they wish to be considered for a honest review. Please note if you wish to us to read from a self help book or that genre, this will be automatically be rejected. “
Recently, we received this message on Matchmakerfm from a gentleman who for this case we will call ‘Y’ who sent the following message (edited for length):
“Hi, I’m Y, a Motivational Speaker on Diversity and Inclusion in ****, ******. I’m writing to introduce myself as a possible guest on your podcast. I’ve written a book titled “***** *********** ****** ** ***** * ****” This book was written to challenge the norms of division present in humankind. I highlight in great length the divides and the motives behind them. I am happy to send a PDF version of the book to read before the podcast if you require me to do so. The book will be released in August. I would love an opportunity to promote my book on your podcast. “
Of course, as you will see he clearly hadn’t read the guidelines and drew this as a automatic response
“Thank you for your recent message.
If you read our profile, you will see that Reading in Bed firstly does not review books akin to yours and secondly is not a guest Podcast rather a book review Podcast so we are turning down your request automatically.
I wish you all the best with your book, but a gentle suggestion would be to review what Podcasts you are contacting before sending a message like you have.
Reading in Bed.”
It is also worth noting he sent the same message through to Spoken Label which has similar guidelines on.
(Originally slated for publication on the Sunday Tribune on 22 August 2021)
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