Episode 27: Steering into the Pratfall

All right, here's the chain that got me to this topic.
I was listening to a podcast where the host, one of the hosts has been on leave.
So the other host is replaying some other episodes of other things that he's done.
In this particular episode, he was replaying an episode of a different podcast that he hosts in which he was talking with the with some people from LinkedIn.
I think it was like a product manager and something else, but people from LinkedIn who and the conversation was really around the type of content that LinkedIn responds best to.
Amidst this conversation, the podcast host was outlining, and he's a very big LinkedIn influencer or whatever, top voice.
And he was outlining a post that he had made that had kind of quote unquote gone viral.
That post was a picture of a sign in front of a coffee shop, and you might have even seen this, that said something to the extent of come in and try the world's worst coffee according to one reviewer on Yelp.
Something like that.
I'll try to find the post and link to it.
So we've got a podcaster on his podcast replaying a different podcast where he's in an interview with LinkedIn people discussing a post he had made on LinkedIn.
That's where we are.
The point in the post he had made was really around a person using kind of bad press or whatever to their advantage.
Well, that wasn't all it was about.
He was also discussing the pratfall effect and how being genuine can help earn trust.
But sort of between the lines or the overall effect of what he was talking about in many ways came down to taking something that was sort of a negative attack and turning it into something that became a strength.
Like, if you get, you know, kind of like that old, you know, no, no, there's no such thing as bad press.
That was sort of the overall point of his post saying that this person took something that could have been damaging and tried to turn it into something positive.
And then his point in the post is that people should do this more often, which then got me thinking about a podcast that I did got about 17 years ago now, 17, 18 years ago, in which I did do this very thing.
To certain mixed success.
So this is, this is, this is where I'm going with this.
I'm going to discuss this piece of things.
So 17 or 18 years ago.
Oh, and I should say this type of marketing where you're taking, it's sort of like controversial almost, right?
Or very tongue in cheek or, you know, you could look at it a bunch of different ways, but this idea of taking something that someone says about you, that's negative or meant to be an attack and turn it into something positive and something that's a strength kind of thing.
So this podcast I was on 17 or 18 years ago, it was ostensibly a podcast about role-playing games.
However, really what it was was a lot of irreverent type of conversation and a lot of off-topic stuff.
And we were just, the vibe we were going for was more, you know, hanging out with some people, having fun, just having fun conversations, sort of wrapped around the overarching umbrella of role-playing games.
So this didn't always sit well with all the listeners, right?
A lot of people who listen to podcasts come for a very specific reason.
They weren't getting that out of us necessarily.
And so eventually we ended up with a bad review on Apple Podcasts, or it was at that time, I think it was just iTunes Podcasts or whatever.
The Apple Podcasts platform at that time.
So then on a subsequent episode of the podcast, I turned that into a kind of marketing fun thing.
And what I called for our listeners, who did like us, to go and do, I said, go on to Apple Podcasts and write a terrible review.
Like, trash us in the, you know, review description.
And then the overall thing was, best bad review wins.
And we were going to do some kind of prize.
I think we shipped them something or another.
I forget what it was.
And this really worked in that it got listeners to go in there and really engage.
There was a ton of reviews.
And there were some really funny ones.
I loved reading through them.
We went on the show after that was over and read through.
We publicized this for a few episodes in a row.
Then when it was all over, we went and we read through, like, I don't know, what we thought was the best 10 or so.
A lot of fun.
So, from that perspective, it was really, really successful.
And, again, this sort of thing is right up my alley.
I've done this in subsequent endeavors as well, where you get sort of a negative piece of feedback or whatever, and you turn it into something that you're almost proud of.
I like doing that sort of thing.
Here's where it went awry, though.
And this is what the coffee shop sign does well that I didn't that time 17 years ago.
So, despite all these terrible reviews, on top of a review, you also give something a star rating, right?
One to five kind of thing.
So, when all this was said and done, where we ended up was a three.
We ended up dead in the middle.
And this was because I hadn't given any clear direction to the listeners as to whether I meant go out and leave a five-star review but terrible comments.
Or did I mean go out, leave a one-star review and terrible comments?
In hindsight, I could have done either one of these things, and it would have added to the overall result.
But I hadn't done either.
So, what happened was about half of the people went and did five-star with a terrible bunch of comments.
And a bunch of other people went and left one star with a bunch of terrible comments.
And we ended up at three.
So, after all this was said and done, we ended up with this, like, dead average rated podcast.
Because I hadn't given a clear call to action.
I hadn't clarified that piece.
As opposed to the coffee shop sign, granted, a little bit simpler of an example, but their call to action is simple.
Come in the shop and try the coffee.
Their sign doesn't just say, our coffee shop is known for the world's worst cup of coffee, according to one Yelp reviewer.
It says, come in and try the world's worst cup of coffee, according to one Yelp reviewer.
There's a huge difference there.
In the first case, someone could easily read that and decide for themselves whether or not they're walking in.
I mean, obviously, they're doing a side for themselves either way.
But some people might read that and feel that they are prompted to go try the coffee.
Other people might just read it as a funny sign and keep going.
Whereas, since it specifically says, come in and try this coffee, a person knows what they're supposed to do with that.
And that's where I had failed in what I had asked the listeners to do.
And so I learned that and I've used that since in my life just to make sure that if I want some specific outcome, that I detail that.
Regardless of whether I'm making kind of a funny tongue-in-cheek controversial kind of thing or just anything, that clear call to action, that clear direction is important if you're shooting for a particular outcome.
I would liken this almost to the new wave, well, not new wave, but the, I feel like the increasing wave of interest around bad movies.
There's a whole culture now around bad movies.
And a lot of times what you hear is, well, was this a bad movie because it was boring and uninteresting?
Or was this a bad movie, like a good bad movie?
A movie that's clearly terrible, but a lot of fun to watch.
And I would venture to guess that with this ramping up of this culture, we will see an increasing number of bad movies in years to come.
They're designed to be fun, bad movies.
There's already been quite a bit of this.
Obviously, there's things like, you know, Sharknado from years ago and stuff.
Clearly kind of designed to be a tongue-in-cheek, pretty terrible movie, but meant to be fun.
That's what this is like.
That's what those reviews were supposed to be.
Like, these are bad reviews for fun.
And I think what we're going to see, particularly, not that this is about the movies, but that becomes the clear call to action for some number of directors out there who look at this and say,
Wow, there's a big market here.
Now I'm going to intentionally do this.
Again, not that it hasn't already happened and whatever, but I could definitely, with the upswing of this type of culture out there,
seeing that expanding in coming years, particularly as some of these large franchise-y things are starting to kind of fall apart.
So anyway, I say all this really just to, A, share an anecdote that I related to from something else I was listening to,
but B, to also say that this sort of thing really does work.
I have done this time and time again over the course of my career, and it works every time.
Now, obviously, you can't overuse it.
You don't want to do it all the time.
Ultimately, you want often to avoid negativity to begin with.
But in cases where you do end up with negativity, it's a great time to kind of spin that and turn it on its head and make it into something fun and attractive for everybody.
So do you have anything in your life or professional career where this could be applicable?
Try it out.
So there's really no, you know, well, I shouldn't say that.
There could be a downside, I suppose.
But it really does work if you spin it well.
So have you tried this?
Might you try this?
Love to hear from anybody who's done this one way or another.
I think this is one of the most effective ways to get people's attention in many cases and pull them onto your side.
So highly recommend if you've never tried it.
Give it a whirl.
I want to move.