[sanjayio]

To rein this convo back a bit, sometimes hearing it raw and hard can help. I consider myself to have medium thick skin and I appreciate feedback like this immensely because it has a certain comedic effect as well. Maybe that’s how I grew up though.

[nickjj]

I also don't mind feedback like that.

It's just hard to take action on it because it's 1 data point. For example, I also record video courses. Tens of thousands of people have gone through them and I've gotten a handful of comments from people saying I sound robotic. But then I've also gotten hundreds of comments saying they like the way I explain things and had fun.

This podcast is different because I kind of feel like if I'm doing my job correctly the guest will be speaking 98% of the time. I'm there to ask thought provoking questions and hope it sparks a good response from them, then maybe I'll add a little bit of color and opinions around their answers and move on. I don't want to take away their thunder or be the focal point of the show. I hate listening to guest based podcasts where the host doesn't let their guest speak and always interrupts them with "actually..." type of remarks or tries to 1-up them.

[popey]

I don't think you can dismiss feedback because it only came from a handful of people. The brutal fact is, if someone doesn't like you or your podcast, they're almost guaranteed to unsubscribe, close the tab, and never contact you about it. If you're getting multiple negative feedbacks on the same topic, you can bank on 10x more people thinking the same thing, but never telling you.

I ran a podcast with friends for 13 years. We took it on the chin, and paid (via patreon subs) for an audio engineer to fix the things people complained about in our show. It made a world of difference, but we'll never be able to break the "first impression" of people who didn't appreciate it, and unsubbed as a result.

[nickjj]

> If you're getting multiple negative feedbacks on the same topic, you can bank on 10x more people thinking the same thing, but never telling you.

Sure but the ratio matters in the end.

For example if 30,000 folks have gone through something and 5 people say you sound like a robot with zero charisma but 287 people say the content was engaging and funny then I have to assess that a majority are ok with how things were presented. There's always room for improvement but you're never going to please everyone.