Another AI-Easy-Button Backfire

Here’s a cautionary tale about AI gone haywire…


I host a podcast called The Story Power Marketing Show, and I get mountains of emails pitching prospective guests.


Over the last few months, more and more of those pitches have been AI-generated.


They’re simple to spot.


They always open with some generic praise about the podcast — usually with specific details about an episode they just “heard.”


Example: “I was just listening to your episode with Gal Borenstein and loved how you both tackled the challenge of building trust amidst AI-led misinformation and short attention spans. The practical conversation on using human-centric research and authenticity to transform technical brands into trust magnets really caught my ear.”

(Could that be more AI-ee? ↑)


The harebrained theory (no offense to hares): I’m supposed to be honored and impressed that the “person” a) invested time to listen to my podcast and b) had such an intelligent take on the episode’s content.


The reality: I’m neither honored, nor impressed.


Actually, I feel sorry for the prospective podcast guests who are so overwhelmed and rushed they think the AI-easy-button is the way to introduce themselves as standout experts to hosts like me who can give them a stage to stand on.


But wait. There’s more.


Last week, the AI pitches began to arrive with the following greeting: “Hi Mike…”

“Hi Mike, Story Power’s focus on real conversations about building and scaling a business made me think of…”


“Hey Mike, I Ioved your recent conversation with Dr. Laura Sicola, especially when she brought up how experts can sound like ‘human spreadsheets’ if they’re not careful.”


“Hi Mike, I was listening to your episode with Gal Borenstein…”


And my favorite…


“Hi Mike, I have to say, your conversation with Michael Hauge was captivating and gave me a new appreciation for the way you and Tom guide guests toward showing the ‘transformation’ in their stories.”


So… It looks like some AI-powered Podcast Guest Pitcher has been scraping a database that says “Mike” is the host of the Story Power Marketing Show.


That last pitch is best because it claims to have heard “Mike” AND “Tom” — together — guide our guest Michael Hauge through a “captivating” conversation.


Methinks the prospective guest is either hallucinating or has unleashed AI to flatter me with lazy lies.


Either way, this isn’t good for the prospective guest.


Some advice for those of you who want to appear on podcasts:


Keep it simple, and keep it honest.


You don’t have to flatter hosts with false claims that you listened to the latest episode. Don’t tell them their podcast gave you a “new appreciation” for such-and-such.


Just tell them about yourself, what you want to discuss on their podcast, and why that would be interesting to the host and their listeners.


If you want to short-cut the process with AI-generated emails, so be it. But before you send those emails, make sure your robot gets the host’s name right and did not pile on the B.S.


An opportunity for those who want to appear on podcasts:


If you’re looking to stand out as an expert to hire, appearing on other people’s stages (including podcasts) is a great way to get noticed and make valuable connections.


If you’re a good fit for my audience, I’d love to have you as a guest on my podcast.


Go to https://guest.storypowermarketing.show. You’ll find a video where I describe the show, details about the kind of guests we like, and a form to apply to be a guest.


An opportunity for those who host podcasts or want to:


That page I mentioned — https://guest.storypowermarketing.show — is the first step in a powerful, automated system I designed to screen prospective guests, manage communications with them, and generally streamline my podcast hosting process.


This system has saved me hundreds of hours since I launched it.


If you’re a podcast host (or aspiring host) interested in learning how to screen and book guests — without it becoming a time-sucking hassle — I’d be happy to show you the system I built.

Just reply to this email and let me know you want to see it.