I’ve been producing a podcast for a first-time podcaster. Let’s call him “Jim.” Jim isn’t much of a talker, though to give him at least some credit, he does do some prep work and puts a little work in, so that automatically puts him in a slightly higher tier than others I’ve worked with. Still, Jim is awkward on his best day and makes it all too obvious that he’s either reading a script or has zero knowledge about whatever topic he’s discussing, or worse, both. And while it’s possible that Jim could improve someday, it’s highly unlikely, because Jim doesn’t listen to people with experience, instead he listens to his friends, or at least those around him that’ll tell him what he wants to hear versus those that give him honest constructive feedback – in other words, people like me.
Jim is now a dozen or so episodes into his podcast, a podcast that I’ve been paid to assist him with. To be clear, I’m not being paid by Jim himself, but rather someone else who has decided that Jim needs something to do outside his wheelhouse. Another task to make his wage worthwhile. And somewhere along the way, Jim mistook this new task for his boss’s confidence in him and his podcasting abilities. In fact, so mistaken is Jim, that he’s developed an unhealthy bit of ego in only a few short weeks.
When people email questions about the podcast, Jim defers to me. Be it technical, analytical or logistical, Jim has now decided that he is the talent and cannot be bothered by such things and therefore these questions must of course be answered by me. Jim, you see, has garnered some 129 listeners over the past 3 weeks. I’m sure Wondery is looking to get ahold of him before Spotify lands him with a multi-million-dollar contract. He’s fucking global, man – a mega-talent. And a mega-talent can’t be pestered with anything but the performance.
Full disclosure: I’m being paid to record, edit, produce, and publish the podcast. I’m not being paid to acquire his guests, communicate with said guests, deal with press people (as if), or really even read a single email about the damn thing at all.
“DON’T BOTHER ME WITH THE DETAILS!” – Jim, probably.
What confuses me is this: Jim is far from the first person I’ve run into that has let minimal (and I can’t stress this enough, we’re talking EXTREMELY MINIMAL) success go to his head and turn into a fucking egocentric prick almost overnight. Podcasting in particular seems to be a breeding ground for self-inflated superegos and all of these years later I’m still stumped as to why.
There seems to be little rhyme or reason as to who’s head will swell versus who’s won’t. That said, Boomers and Gen-X seem to have the worst time with it, while Millennials and Gen-Z less so. I think this may have something to do with the fact that the younger demographics don’t really need much in the way of technical assistance and have a more realistic view of what success really looks like in the world of digital content. 129 listeners ain’t shit, in other words, so get over yourself, Jim. But seriously, I have to think that some 9 out of every 10 Boomers or Gen-X podcasters that I’ve worked with over the years have developed uncontrollable and yet horrifically unfounded egos – sometimes overnight.
Consider this woman that I used to produce a podcast for. Let’s call her Darla. Darla was on the radio once or twice over a decade earlier. In that time, Darla accrued a fanbase of like 6 people. Those 6 people made every effort to make sure that Darla never felt underappreciated across whatever social channels were around at the time. Once Darla started podcasting, they made the jump and let her know how much they loved her. Constantly. Darla stopped at nothing to remind us all how her adoring fans needed to hear her and any delays in getting her episodes out would likely result in violent protest, or at least some sternly worded tweets and emails.
We’re talking about 6 people here. Six. Literally. Who the fuck cares?
With all due respect to Darla and her fan club, six listeners won’t pay the rent. Six listeners won’t even pay for a single day of highspeed broadband internet. Six listeners are 123 listeners short of Jim’s 129 listeners and even that guy needs to check his ego shit at the door, lest I slap the Hollywood right out of him.