Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 130

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #504

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

How Google Got Its Employees to Eat Their Vegetables – Jane Black – Medium . “Nudges and incentives are good ways to get people to change their behaviors. This is an interesting look at what’s possible when money isn’t an object—but the underlying lessons are useful for society in general.” (Alistair for Hugh). 
Face ID compatible respirator masks – Face ID Masks . “Started as a joke. Turns out there’s a real need. This is genius (and creepy as hell, but I kinda hope it catches on).” (Alistair for Mitch).
The Professor of Denial – The Chronicle of Higher Education . “I have a theory that I can’t quite articulate, but it goes something like: modern liberalism and democracy emerged because of the proliferation of communications technology (printing press, radio, TV), where publishing information had a cost, which limited their production, meaning that ideas has to compete to get intellectual marketshare (and votes), which meant there was a real interaction between ideas and the people who held them, vying for limited infospace. But in a world where publishing is free, and info infinite, ideas don’t have to compete any more, and so can grow and morph independently of each other without the need to interact. Which means democracy won’t work any more. What will? I don’t know.” (Hugh for Alistair).
The Super-Rich Are Being Scammed on Their Private Jets – Bloomberg . “Something tells me this was approved by an editor who was having trouble meeting her viral article quota for the month. In any case, get your tissues out for this tearjerker.” (Hugh for Mitch).
The a16z Marketplace 100 – Andreessen Horowitz . “Looking to build the next big thing? Make sure it’s a marketplace. That was a little sarcastic. Only a little. It seems like the hottest companies that venture capitalists will throw pounds of money at is someone building a marketplace (or turning what they have into a marketplace). ‘Over the past few decades, marketplaces like eBay, Airbnb, Uber and Lyft, Alibaba, and Instacart, have become some of the most impactful companies in the world economy. Collectively, millions of individuals and small businesses make a living operating on these platforms, where hundreds of billions of dollars of goods and services trade hands each year. Today, ridesharing platforms alone account for roughly 1 percent of US household income and there are an estimated 75 million gig workers in the US, and growing, according to the Fed. By possessing powerful network effects, marketplaces can become huge economies themselves. Over time, such companies have revolutionized a series of diverse industries, from travel to food to childcare. Marketplaces are at the center of many of society’s most important trends—the gig economy, the new generation of creative work, microentrepreneurship, and beyond. There’s much more to come. As investors in Airbnb, Instacart, and many others, it’s no secret that we’re bullish on (if not obsessed with) marketplace companies.’ So… what’s your marketplace play?” (Mitch for Alistair). 
How Saudi Arabia Infiltrated Twitter – BuzzFeed . “This reads like a spy novel. A crazy story about the extent that individuals and organizations will go to get what they want. If this isn’t turned into a novel and then a blockbuster thriller movie, I will be shocked. With that, it’s a stain on Twitter and foreign government’s spying strategies. Hard to imagine that this actually happens in real life. It just goes to show you how naive I probably am.” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Put Design At The Core of Business Today

Here’s a piece of data that should raise an eyebrow (or two)…

66% of CEOs could not say what their Chief Design Officer actually do or how to measure their success… 90% of companies aren’t using design talent to their full potential. That is a paraphrase of an article published the other day in Fast Company titled, McKinsey study of 1,700 companies reveals CEOs don’t understand design leadership at all, which is based on the McKinsey study, Are you asking enough from your design leaders? Here’s the thing: having a Chief Design Officer is very a la mode. It’s the thing. Being focused on design or being a design-led organization sends a signal that a company is focused on the customer experience and the development of better products and services. Based on this article – and the study by McKinsey – it seems like companies are (not surprisingly) good at checking boxes, but poor at integrating this type of talent and output into an organization.

If you’re not focused on design, then what are you focused on? 

Design is the new digital. Design is the new marketing. Design is the new customer experience. The truth is that good design came along before all of those developments in better business practice. Where does design sit in the organization? Who leads design? What kind of team do they have? How is this team adding economic value to the organization? How is that being measured? A million more questions. Ben Sheppard (a partner at McKinsey Design who co-authored the study) articulates the problem much better than I can:

“Design is like a strategy that seems to mean 100 things to 100 people. The all-encompassing term of design we see is understanding user needs and creating solutions for user needs… many CEOs are still using the 1980s definition of color, material, and finish.”

It sounds like the same challenge that marketing had to get into the c-suite all over again.

Marketing (product, price, promotion and place) became “the advertising budget” for most organizations. CEOs didn’t see marketing as a core function (or value) of the business. We know this, because that rationale is what gave rise to the advent of the advertising agency. Companies abdicated the role of marketing to an external ad agency (this went on for decades – for some companies it still does). Companies thinking about design are now grappling with the same problem. “How do I bring design into my organization, when I already have a Chief Strategy Office, a Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Customer Officer?” It’s a fair question, only if they see design as the “color, material and finish” of the product and service. I don’t see design that way. Nor should you.

Design is at the center of everything.

That’s not a line from Fast Company, McKinsey or a renowned Chief Design Officer. That’s the soul of your business today. If it’s not… then it should be. Design is what the customer uses and experiences – at every twist and turn. If you’re not designing your business, the products, the services, the experience, then what are you working on? A better lead gen campaign? A loyalty program? The next version of your widget? How is that coming into fruition without design at the core?

Every company talks about being design-led. Maybe a better question is how is design being led in your business today?

Amazon Is Not Evil… or Maybe They Are?

That is the question.

If you read the major stories that were recently published in The Atlantic  (Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan) and/or The New Yorker (Is Amazon Unstoppable?), this is the new(wish) position of the media: Amazon is bad for business. Jeff Bezos is bad/evil. I wonder how true this is? I wonder what the consumers think? I wonder if the stock market feels the same way as the media does? The media is under a lot of fire these days as well. It seems to me like the media should be, after reading those two pieces on Amazon. I’m not an Amazon apologist. Amazon can do better in many ways. Amazon tries and works hard to deliver for their consumers. Some think that this comes at the cost of their own employees health, but it’s hard to run a business like Amazon. It’s not easy to employ 750,000 people, and ensure that everything works as perfectly as everyone else wants. It’s also easy to criticize the beast that is Amazon. I’m fine with criticizing, so long as it comes with tangible solutions or opportunities to fix the problems. Usually, it’s just complaints with no solutions.

As Amazon emerged, everyone loved it. Everyone still does.

Consumers loved the convenience, the speed, the price and what it brought. As everyone used Amazon more, talked about it more, Jeff Bezos and his team pushed out further. From exploring space to AWS to acquiring businesses like Zappos, Twitch, Ring, Whole Foods and countless more. It’s hard to look at Amazon and know exactly what it is. How does the government step in and break up something that is as diverse (and pervasive) as Amazon has become? Do we believe that Amazon is just a retail play? Do we believe that they are an e-commerce platform, a web hosting platform, a streaming service, a logistics company? Something more? Something less? It’s hard to see. It’s hard to feel. It’s hard to think of shopping, hosting and streaming without Amazon – and those are all very different businesses (and there are many more industries that Amazon is disrupting).

Would Netflix be as good and competitive as it is if Amazon Prime had not made their move?

Would newspapers be amping up their newsrooms had Jeff Bezos not bought the Washington Post and stayed invested in quality journalism (whether you follow his political slants or otherwise?). It’s amorphis. It’s jello. It’s hard to understand just what Amazon is, and what Jeff Bezos’ end game is. The articles listed above try to dismantle major milestones of the company, while dissecting Bezos’ private life. Neither had access to Bezos. Most employees (current and former) would only speak off the record or have been anonymized. This can be read as, “they are afraid to speak,” or it can read as, “there’s nothing to see here.” Where there is smoke, there is fire. We know this. But what kind of fire are we dealing with?

What if Amazon is just a business that keeps getting bigger?

What if Amazon is unstoppable (even if the government steps in)?. What if this is just the kind of company that customers wants? Are we going to put the brakes on it, because we’re uncomfortable with just how well this company has been built, and how it has capitalized on capitalism (some argue that Bezos has mastered capitalism, while others argue that he broke it)? With that, there are plenty of other sides to this story. Plenty of horror stories. Plenty of dirt, and things that have gone sideways. Plenty of tragedy. There is no denying that. How could there not be all of this bad and all of this good in an Amazon world, which includes billions of dollars being made and millions of customers and employees. It’s a nation unto itself. Show me a nation where everything is fair, where everyone agrees on how big things should get, and what value there is? It’s unrealistic for us to look at Amazon as all that is bad in the world, because we built it. We buy from it. We use it. We encourage others too. Now, we’re stuck figuring out how to manage and accept the results of it.

People can vote with their wallets.

There are always options. This doesn’t make Amazon good or bad… it just makes them a big company (bigger than anything that we have ever seen), and it makes them scary. Size, growth and control should always be scary. Still, this doesn’t give the media the right to try to dig for something that may not be there. To make it feel bigger and scarier than it might be. To gaslight everyone. To try to tell a different narrative that consumers are not only buying into, but don’t agree with. Ask a consumer what they really hate about Amazon. Now ask a consumer what they really hate about the media. Now ask a consumer about what they want, in terms of making their lives easier, cheaper and more livable. Don’t be fooled. The media is quick to judge without getting any real quotes from the subjects that they’re covering, or speaking to any of their millions of customers. As a customer, I spend no time thinking about Amazon. It just delivers on their promise. I prefer to focus on the brands and businesses that continually fail to meet my expectations, overcharge and underdeliver on services (think airlines, telcos, banks, pharma, etc…). Maybe that’s the real tragedy? The media might be better served drawing attention to the brands who are constantly letting their consumers down, not the ones that we all seem to like and love. 

Yesterday was a telling day for Amazon.

Will customers focus on Jeff Bezos giving $10 billion (almost 8% of his net worth) to fight climate change and/or will they focus on the PBS Frontline documentary, Amazon Empire – The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos, that aired last night? Did the documentary uncover real truths that should startle and make customers think twice about using Amazon? Was the timing of Bezos’ donation questionable and done to deflate the attention that might be given to this documentary?

Are we going to have a smoking gun or just smoke when it comes to Amazon?

If you feel passionate that Amazon is evil, how would you solve the problem?

The Airbnb Nightmare And More On CHOM 97.7 FM

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am on air at CHOM 97.7 FM radio out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology, digital media and culture. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on i Heart Radio, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering on about what’s happening in the digital world. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry DiMonte morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

As a company, Airbnb posted a “net loss of $322 million through September after making a profit of $200 million the previous year. It also said that while the company’s revenue increased to $1.65 billion in the third quarter, up $400 million from the year prior, costs grew faster,” according to a report published by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Is this a company that people want to invest in as it heads towards IPO?
Locally, Airbnb is becoming a nightmare for apartment/condo tenants in the downtown core of Montreal. The article, ‘This isn’t the Holiday Inn’: Montreal residents decry Airbnb rentals, in this past week’s Montreal Gazette paints a horrific picture of people who are trying to live their lives next to units that are listed on Airbnb.
Esteban Vargas (CHOM FM’s awesome morning producer, who is in the studio the entire time with Terry) posted (on Facebook) a really interesting website called, Inside Airbnb, that shows just how crazy the Montreal Airbnb situation is. Check out your city in this website to see how many units Airbnb occupies.
App of the Week: 42 Hours of Ambient Sounds from Blade Runner, Star Trek, Doctor Who.

You can also listen in via I Heart Radio.

David Chavern on Journalism, Fake News And Media – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #710 of Six Pixels of Separation is now live and ready for you to listen to.

I had the opportunity to speak for the largest newspaper and media association a few years back, just as they were repositioning and changing their brand name to the News Media Alliance. The President and CEO of the association was (and still is) David Chavern. We had a great discussion (debate) about the current state of media and journalism side-stage before my keynote. When the opportunity presented itself to record a conversation with David, I jumped at it. Fake news, the distrust of media, Twitter account raging heads of state, printing the news, finding facts over editorializing, the impact of social media on news and distribution, and much more. News Media Alliance is the new industry’s largest trade association. David joined the Alliance as president and CEO in October 2015. In addition to developing an entirely new brand and identity for the organization, David has been intensely focused on telling the powerful – and optimistic – story of the news industry. David built a career spanning thirty years in executive, strategic and operational roles, and most recently completed a decade-long tenure at the United States Chamber of Commerce. From 2014 to 2015, he served as the President of the Center for Advanced Technology & Innovation at the Chamber. From 2007 through 2014, David was the Chamber’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. As you can imagine, we have a lot of ground to cover. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation #710.

SPOS #710 – David Chavern on Journalism, Fake News And Media

Welcome to episode #710 of Six Pixels of Separation.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #710 – Host: Mitch Joel. I had the opportunity to speak for the largest newspaper and media association a few years back, just as they were repositioning and changing their brand name to the News Media Alliance. The President and CEO of the association was (and still is) David Chavern. We had a great discussion (debate) about the current state of media and journalism side-stage before my keynote. When the opportunity presented itself to record a conversation with David, I jumped at it. Fake news, the distrust of media, Twitter account raging heads of state, printing the news, finding facts over editorializing, the impact of social media on news and distribution, and much more. News Media Alliance is the new industry’s largest trade association. David joined the Alliance as president and CEO in October 2015. In addition to developing an entirely new brand and identity for the organization, David has been intensely focused on telling the powerful – and optimistic – story of the news industry. David built a career spanning thirty years in executive, strategic and operational roles, and most recently completed a decade-long tenure at the United States Chamber of Commerce. From 2014 to 2015, he served as the President of the Center for Advanced Technology & Innovation at the Chamber. From 2007 through 2014, David was the Chamber’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. As you can imagine, we have a lot of ground to cover. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 58:14.
Hello from beautiful Montreal.
Subscribe over at iTunes.
Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.
Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
or you can connect on LinkedIn.
…or on Twitter.
Here is my conversation with David Chavern.
News Media Alliance.
United States Chamber of Commerce.
Follow David on Instagram.
Follow David on Twitter.
This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #710 – Host: Mitch Joel.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #503

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

Modelling the coronavirus epidemic in a city with Python – Towards Data Science – Medium . “No, this isn’t about snakes. Python and R are two popular languages for data science. Another aspect of the current virus epidemic is that we’re much, much better at making mathematical models. Well, not better, maybe—but equipped as citizen scientists. You don’t need to understand math (though it helps!) to make sense of the models in this post; they actually make predictions about the effects of things like quarantine and transportation.” (Alistair for Hugh).
What the coronavirus forcing me in lockdown’s taught me about cooking; plus, how to make Mantou – Reddit . “One of the fascinating things about the otherwise-horrible spread of respiratory disease is that we’re all connected. While people might be quarantined, and otherwise cut off, there are thousands of slice-of-life stories out there of people documenting what they’re doing and how they’re coping. Here’s a food blogger from China writing about constraints, which turns into a reflection on the invention of recipes.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Coronavirus ‘could infect 60% of global population if unchecked’ – The Guardian . “And in good news, well, how’s your math? A 1% mortality rate, potential 60% global population infected, no, no, nothing to see here.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills – Bloomberg Green . “You can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs, as the saying goes.” (Hugh for Mitch).
42 Hours of Ambient Sounds from Blade Runner, Alien, Star Trek and Doctor Who Will Help You Relax & Sleep – Open Culture . “Well, here’s something that you don’t see every day. Need to chill out, meditate or fall asleep? How about doing it to the ambient and background sounds from one of your favorite science fiction shows? This is glorious for all (not just the nerds like me, who wonder what it might sound like to live, work and sleep in deep space).” (Mitch for Alistair).
All Your Favorite Brands, From BSTOEM to ZGGCD – The New York Times . “Brands. Trademarks. Third-party sellers. Amazon. It’s all one hot mess and super-confusing if you’re an uniformed consumer. I have this massage gun that works wonders for my back (and random muscle sets). A friend wanted to know which brand it was. I could not remember, so I did a quick search on Amazon… and got completely lost. Hundreds of massage guns… brands I had never heard of… pricing that is all over the map, and each one with great reviews (hundreds… thousands of reviews). What’s going on here? Welcome to the future of brands, confusion, one global marketplace and questions about what, exactly, Amazon will do about it? (Besides being a trillion dollar company).” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

The Ultimate Guide To Being A Great Podcast Interviewer

Everyone wants to podcast. Everyone wants to be a guest on a podcast. Podcasting is the new content marketing.

I can’t tell you how many interviews I’ve been involved with since the mid-eighties, but it is in the thousands. I’m not bragging or hyping here. My main podcast, Six Pixels of Separation, has been running since 2006 with over 700 episodes, and my passion project podcast, Groove – The No Treble Podcast (where I am trying to build the largest oral history of electric bass players) has been running for over five years with over 60 episodes. Beyond that, I spend a lot of time on either side of the mic. I’ve interviewed rock stars, business leaders, marketing experts, bestselling authors, and more for over thirty years. I’ve also been interviewed countless times for TV, print, radio, online, etc… The only thing that I love more than a great conversation is sharing that conversation with an audience. Now, it seems like everyone wants to create a podcast, be a guest on a podcast, get more media attention, start a YouTube channel and more. With that, everyone thinks that being an interviewer is easy. Just make a list of questions (or ask the guest what they want to talk about) and hit record. The reality? Being a great interviewer takes a lot of practice, research, knowledge and reps. It’s the type of work that looks easy to the audience, but it looks easy because the interviewer has spent many years (and countless hours) honing the craft.

So, what do the best interviewers do? 

They actually don’t interview anybody. Kill the word “interview.” You’re having a conversation. You’re connecting. You’re farming for a great story that the guest has yet to tell anyone. Think about it less as something that has to turn into a piece of content, and more like a coffee date. If you’re going to waste anyone’s time (including your own) for a coffee, make it count. Interviewing them won’t make it count. Having an awesome conversation will be memorable, valuable and something that everyone will want to make happen again. It’s also a first date. The idea behind a great conversation is to get a second date (because it was so engaging that the guest wants more – and so does the audience).
Create familiarity. Going in cold sucks. It puts the interviewer at a deficit. You always want equal footing (or a peer to peer conversation). Familiarity can be anything from a mutual friend to a shared hobby. It can be something as simple as their interest in a particular sports team or author. You have to dig a little harder to find out this information, but it’s usually readily available. LinkedIn can be a help if the guest is not a major celebrity (look at the guest’s mutual connections or other areas of interest beyond their employment).
Don’t waste the guests time. Do not ask for a pre-call. Do not send them questions in advance to accept (unless they demand it). Do not ask them to sign wavers and contracts to be a guest on your show. Do not ask them to share the pending show on their social media channels. Do not ask them to introduce you to other potential guests (unless they offer). Do not ask them to email their list about appearing on your show. Do not ask them for a testimonial. This is your content. You do the research. You promote them. You make them like being your guest so much that they offer do to all of the things above. The guest is not there to promote you. It’s the other way around.
You are the host… not the star. There’s this weird (and somewhat new) trend in podcasts, where the host of the show is the star of the show. The show’s content is all about them. Making them look smart… and smarter than their guest. Your show doesn’t have to be 101. Your show doesn’t have to be asking guests questions that you know the answer to (but the audience might not). Your show should be about the guest. If the host takes every opportunity to show how much smarter they are than the guest, or they have guests on to validate themselves, it’s sad (to me). It seems like this is the current trend with a lot of shows. I find it depressing.  
Don’t have any questions ready. This one really freaks people out, but I never have a list of questions. At most, I have a few lines written down (exact name of their books, company, etc…) and maybe some areas of interest that I would like to discuss/explore. It’s a blank sheet of paper that I fill with questions and thoughts as the conversation unfolds. Remember, it’s not an interview… it’s a conversation. Remember, it’s a coffee… not an inquisition. Your job – before the conversation – is to do the heavy lifting (aka – the research). Dig deep, read a lot, take notes and prep. Learn about them. Know them. Then, when it’s time for the conversation, be like a pipe that is about to burst from the pressure, and let that steam flow.
Take notes. Expanding on the last point: Whether it’s in person or remotely, I always have a large notepad right by my side to take notes. As the conversation blossoms, the guest provides new areas of conversation or concepts that need to be expanded upon. Don’t be afraid to take notes. But, do not have the notes as a barrier between you and your guest. Don’t refer to the notes and create moments of awkward pause (no second dates happen this way). By the end of a good conversation, I usually have a page (or more) of notes. Ultimately, that winds up looking a lot like a list of questions that most journalists use to guide the conversation. Ultimately, it provides a good reference when creating the content that supports the conversation. Beyond that, what the guest says always sparks new thoughts for me to write, speak or podcast about. They’re inspiring me with what they’re saying. There’s gold in those notes.
Never interrupt. It’s not what you think. This is, actually, a technical piece of advice – especially if you (or someone else) has to transcribe the conversation. Listening back and hearing all of your “ummms,” “ahhhhs” and “hang on a second…” will not only make it hard to transcribe the audio, but will also make you realize just how annoying we humans can be when we don’t let others finish their thoughts and sentences (and it’s tough for the audience). It’s normal to get excited about something that is said and jump in. Resist temptation. It will not only make the transcription better, it will allow your guest to finish their thought. It will also allow your guest to think and add even more color. It will be a much better audience experience as well.
Give it a beat. Most guests have been asked just about everything under the sun. The person leading the conversation may think that they have something new to ask, but it is rarely the case. So, where does the gold and unique aspects of the conversation come from? My experience is that the best parts of the conversation happen after the guest has said everything, and has a chance (moment of silence) to think about what they just said. Anything that comes after phrases like, “on second thought…,” “now that I think about it…” or “you know what…” is where the gold typically lies. It’s not easy to perfect this technique, and it can be awkward, if you don’t know how to pull it off, but try leaving a beat of silence after the guest has finished their thought. Priming it with, “is there anything else you would like to add?” might get the person leading the conversation somewhere, but it will be nowhere near as good as when the guest goes down that road on their own. A beat of silence is often the best lubricant.
Push back kindly. I don’t like aggressive conversations or those who are contrarian hosts just to get a rise out of their guests. For me, it often comes off as disrespectful. That’s a bad brand to have as a content creator (for the most part… but some journalists have made a living being that persona). Still, I believe that if someone has published a book, produced an album or put anything out into the world, that they should be able to defend their work. It’s fine to push back, but push back kindly. Don’t just provoke. If you have a reason to push back, make sure you provide it. Lines like, “in my experience,” or “in the client work that we’ve done” often sets the stage and enables the guest to understand that their insights may not be your experience, and you want your audience to know why. You’re not trying to have the guest validate their work, you’re trying to have the guest inspire those who are listening. 
Cover topics that you don’t understand. Guests or topics for content usually come from the same place: I simply don’t understand something, or I am fascinated by something. It could be a new book, an article, a type of technology, etc… If I am, personally, grappling with something, my assumption is that someone else out there is as well. From there, I find myself thinking: Who is the expert in this field? Those are the guests that I hunt down. 
Don’t cover the same topic as everyone else. Because of the proliferation of podcasting, it seems like everyone has a podcast. New authors need publicity, so they often appear on many shows. When they do this, they will often request that their show/segment run on the same week as their book launch, new company announcement, etc… Do your best to avoid this. It’s redundant and it’s (somewhat) boring when many podcasts all have the same guest within the same four week period. If you still want that author/expert on the show, try to get them published before the main deluge or long after. It may not be ideal for the guest, but it’s better for your audience.

Now comes the hard work: Interview a lot of people. Get in your reps. Keep at it. Time and effort will take you from here to there.

99 Smartphones, 1 Red Wagon, Google Maps And More On CHOM 97.7 FM

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am on air at CHOM 97.7 FM radio out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology, digital media and culture. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on i Heart Radio, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering on about what’s happening in the digital world. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry DiMonte morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

Sometimes the Internet gives us great gifts. Case in point: an artist wheeled 99 smartphones around in a wagon and managed to create fake traffic jams on Google Maps.
Have you heard of the meme “Karen” or “Karen the manager.” It seems like Karen is the perfect name (Becky and/or Chad are also in the running) to use as an insult. How did this come to be? “Mainly white women in their mid-30s or 40s. The archetypal ‘Karen’ is blonde, has multiple young kids, and is usually an anti-vaxxer. Karen has a ‘can I speak to the manager’ haircut and a controlling, superior attitude to go along with it.” . 
I’m married. My wife doesn’t let me date. I’ve used that joke before. It’s not original. With that, it’s hard to deny that online dating – which was once considered something very creepy and for desperate people only – has come full circle. New data is out from PEW: 30% of US adults have used only dating. 12% are in committed relationships. With the good, comes the terrible reality as well. We’re not good people when it comes to online connections and being kind to one another. 
App of the Week: Dolby On.

You can also listen in via I Heart Radio.

Ryan Hawk On Management, Performance and Leadership – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #709 of Six Pixels of Separation is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Ryan Hawk is a keynote speaker, author, advisor, and the host of The Learning Leader Show, a podcast (like this one), where he goes deep with some of the world’s biggest brains on how to optimize business and thinking. A lifelong student of leadership, he rose to roles as a professional quarterback and then went on to a VP of Sales. Currently, as head of Brixey & Meyer’s leadership advisory practice, Ryan speaks regularly for many large organizations, works with teams and players in the NFL, NBA, and NCAA, and facilitates Leadership Circles that offers structured guidance and collaborative feedback to new and experienced leaders. Most recently, he published the book, Welcome To Management – How To Grow From Top Performer To Excellent Leader. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation #709.