Remember the alien in Men in Black asking for "sugar in water"? That's exactly what AI-generated podcast pitches sound like - almost human, but missing something fundamentally authentic.
As someone who receives dozens of guest pitches, I'm seeing a disturbing trend: more people are using ChatGPT to write their outreach, and it's backfiring spectacularly. From generic "hope this email finds you well" openings to completely irrelevant topic suggestions, AI pitches are easier to spot (and delete) than ever.
In this episode, I break down why AI pitches fail so badly, share some cringe-worthy real examples I've received, and give you a proven template for crafting pitches that actually get responses. Plus, I'll tell you about the one pitch that was so good it led to an amazing interview.
What you'll learn:
- Why "recently discovered your podcast" is the new spam signal
- The ChatGPT summary that made me laugh (and cry)
- My 4-step framework for pitches that actually work
Have pitch horror stories to share? Send them to streamlinedfeedback.com
00:00:00 --> 00:00:07 AI is making podcast pitches worse. A movie scene
00:00:07 --> 00:00:11 that has stuck with me for 30 years is from Men
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 in Black. Vincent D 'Onofrio playing an upstate
00:00:14 --> 00:00:19 New York farmer named Edgar gets killed by an
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 alien who immediately puts his skin on and wears
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 it like a suit. I guess I should have said spoiler
00:00:25 --> 00:00:29 and content alert here. Then, walking into his
00:00:29 --> 00:00:33 kitchen, Alien Edgar immediately demands of his
00:00:33 --> 00:00:37 wife, and here's my best Alien Edgar impression.
00:00:38 --> 00:00:45 Sugar in water. Sugar in water for those who
00:00:45 --> 00:00:49 didn't catch that. Dinafrio perfectly plays this.
00:00:49 --> 00:00:53 Moving and talking uncomfortably as if he's actually
00:00:53 --> 00:00:57 unfamiliar with how humans move. But it's the
00:00:57 --> 00:01:01 request, sugar in water, that always gets me.
00:01:02 --> 00:01:06 It's odd because even though most beverages we
00:01:06 --> 00:01:10 consume have sugar or some sort of sugar substitute
00:01:10 --> 00:01:15 in them, no one explicitly asks for sugar in
00:01:15 --> 00:01:19 water. And while it's an odd request, Edgar's
00:01:19 --> 00:01:24 wife obliges and watches in disbelief as he downs
00:01:24 --> 00:01:31 the entire glass. It was so close to being believable,
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 but it was missing something innately human.
00:01:35 --> 00:01:39 That's how I have felt about podcast pitches
00:01:39 --> 00:01:45 as of late. Now, bad podcast pitches aren't new.
00:01:45 --> 00:01:49 I've written about them a lot on my blog and
00:01:49 --> 00:01:53 on social media. But in the age of AI, bad pitches
00:01:53 --> 00:01:59 have become rampant. worse. More pitches are
00:01:59 --> 00:02:01 coming in where the sender says hope this email
00:02:01 --> 00:02:05 finds you well or they recently discovered my
00:02:05 --> 00:02:09 podcast and it has quickly become one of my favorites.
00:02:11 --> 00:02:15 The last one has very strong sugar and water
00:02:15 --> 00:02:20 vibes. In fact, for the question on my form,
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 what episode made you want to reach out? which
00:02:24 --> 00:02:28 I've since gotten rid of, but for a long time
00:02:28 --> 00:02:31 and I got rid of it in part because it has become
00:02:31 --> 00:02:36 useless. Someone straight up sent a chat GPT
00:02:36 --> 00:02:40 summary of my episode. How did I know it was
00:02:40 --> 00:02:45 a chat GPT summary? Here is the entire answer.
00:02:46 --> 00:02:50 And again, remember the question was, what episode
00:02:50 --> 00:02:54 made you want to reach out? In the episode Great
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 Things Require Time, Joe begins with an anecdote
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 about impatient customers waiting in line at
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 the best bagel shop in New York, stating that
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 if all they wanted was a bagel, they could have
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 gone to any grocery store, but the best bagels
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 would be worth the wait. This sense of dedication
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 was admirable that something great will not be
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 reached without patience and hard work. The three
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 most important values to building a successful
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 digital presence online our professional authenticity,
00:03:22 --> 00:03:24 professionalism, authenticity, and consistency.
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 This framework encourages creators to ask themselves
00:03:28 --> 00:03:32 and then three questions. So that's not an answer
00:03:32 --> 00:03:36 to what episode made you want to reach out. That
00:03:36 --> 00:03:40 is the answer to the prompt. Can you summarize
00:03:40 --> 00:03:46 the latest episode of this podcast for me? And
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 it ticks all the boxes for a terrible AI answer.
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 It's a clumsy intro. It's written in third person
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 about the person that they're writing to, me.
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 Unnecessary 10 -point vocabulary word. Factually
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 incorrect. I was actually talking about bagels
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 in Pennsylvania, which as a New Yorker, it was
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 shocking that I was able to find good bagels
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 in Pennsylvania. Sorry, Pennsylvania. And it
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 doesn't even remotely answer the question. Bad,
00:04:14 --> 00:04:19 bad, bad. But they don't... They don't have to
00:04:19 --> 00:04:26 be bad. Pitches don't have to be bad. Last year
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 I had my friend Jenny Wright on my other podcast,
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 Streamlines Holopreneur, and her pitch was a
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 breath of fresh air. She focused on the audience,
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 sent the right sort of topics, and showed that
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 she at least looked at the episodes of my podcast
00:04:40 --> 00:04:45 before pitching. I am under no delusion that
00:04:45 --> 00:04:48 everyone who pitches my show is an avid listener,
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 but part of pitching is understanding the show,
00:04:52 --> 00:04:57 who the audience is, and how you as a guest can
00:04:57 --> 00:05:01 help that audience. Jenny and a few folks since
00:05:01 --> 00:05:05 then have done that, and they had a great guest
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 page to boot. I knew having her on the show would
00:05:08 --> 00:05:13 add a ton of value for my audience. So my advice
00:05:13 --> 00:05:17 for pitching podcasts. What can you do if you
00:05:17 --> 00:05:21 are pitching? First of all, make it relevant
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 to the show's audience. Don't just make it an
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 email about how amazing you as a person are.
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 Or if you are a podcast agent, don't just talk
00:05:30 --> 00:05:34 about how great your guest is. That is spam filter
00:05:34 --> 00:05:39 city. Second, check out the show before pitching.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 Listen to an episode if you can, but at least
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 scroll through the back catalog and see what
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 kind of topics the show covers. Number three
00:05:46 --> 00:05:50 is confirm they actually have guests. You know,
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 I've gotten pitched for my audio notes show,
00:05:52 --> 00:05:56 which is super clear. Just me talking into my
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 iPhone about random stuff. Spray and pray is
00:05:59 --> 00:06:03 a bad look. And if I get, if I get a guest pitch
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 for a show that famously doesn't have guests,
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 then even if they pitch my main show, I'm not,
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 I'm going to assume that they're not actually
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 researching my show at all. And finally, you
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 should have a great guest page. Make it easy
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 for the host to understand who you are and why
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 you're qualified to talk about what you're pitching.
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 So creating a good pitch does take more time.
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 This takes way more time than just blindly pitching
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 shows, but this is the sort of thing that will
00:06:30 --> 00:06:35 actually get you good results. Now I will link
00:06:35 --> 00:06:39 to an article version of this episode where I
00:06:39 --> 00:06:46 have a podcast pitch template. It's usually something
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 like, I came across your show and love its mission
00:06:48 --> 00:06:52 to help target audience. Here's how I think I
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 can help add value for your listeners. This is
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 after doing a bunch of research. And then you
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 actually write something that is not just like,
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 I'm so great. It's like, oh, you help busy, solopreneur
00:07:03 --> 00:07:09 parents. I'm a single mom of three and I'm running
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 my own business and I'm managing, right? Like
00:07:12 --> 00:07:15 that's a good answer. That's like the exact avatar
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 of somebody I just interviewed on my podcast.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 And then, you know, I'm happy to answer any questions
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 you have. You can learn more about me here at
00:07:23 --> 00:07:27 a page specifically for podcast guesting, right?
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 Notice that this template makes it clear who
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 the show is for and that you know who the show
00:07:33 --> 00:07:37 is for. You're pitching three or a few irrelevant
00:07:37 --> 00:07:41 topics and you're sending them to a page that
00:07:41 --> 00:07:45 shows your credentials. This will achieve your
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 goal. Show the host that you actually care about
00:07:48 --> 00:07:53 their audience. And for the love of all things
00:07:53 --> 00:07:58 righteous and good, don't outsource this job
00:07:58 --> 00:08:03 to ChatGPT or any generative AI. It's too important
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 if you're trying to forge genuine relationships
00:08:06 --> 00:08:12 that will actually grow your audience and your
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 All right, that's it for this episode of Streamlined
00:08:17 --> 00:08:21 Podcaster. I hope you enjoyed it. I'd love to
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 know what you think. Send your feedback over
00:08:23 --> 00:08:26 to StreamlinedFeedback .com. That's Streamlined
00:08:26 --> 00:08:31 with a D, Feedback .com. And until next time,
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 I hope you find some space in your week.