Interview excerpt from the Cracks Podcast (host Oso Trava) with creator Roberto Martínez about creative experimentation and how audience feedback (likes/dislikes) and the creator’s self-critique influence content decisions. Martínez describes experimenting with podcast formats (monologues, guest panels, 'guests' that are cities), using like/dislike percentages as advisory signals, working gradually and privately on projects, and not publishing failed experiments.
Chapters
I'm much more experimental with the podcast format. I mean, well, before, my talks were like a single style. These days, I do allow myself to experiment a lot with each creative chapter. I mean, I have chapters where it's just me. I have chapters where I talk to a guest, chapters where I have a panel of guests. I'm already starting chapters where the guests are cities. So the guests are cities?
Yes.
I mean, I'm doing a monologue where I try to make the guest a city. So I'm recording a podcast. It's like a mix between a travel blog and a podcast. That's what I'm trying to do these days, because that's where my curiosity is guiding me and leading me.
And how do you take feedback? We were talking before starting that you pay attention not to the comments, but to the percentage of likes and dislikes, and you take action when you receive them. If you see that something you do, like this travel blog gets 60% likes. Yes, yes, yes.
You stop doing it. It does have an influence. I mean, it's like a kind of advisor. I do see it as an advisor that says, okay, this, this didn't get such good feedback. I'll take it into account. Also, for the same reason, I'm very gradual when it comes to making these changes. I mean, it doesn't happen overnight. My work methodology when it comes to doing projects is to start in secret. And I still do it to this day. I mean, I've recorded many episodes in many cities that I haven't published. I'm doing it like the good format too. Although I don't read comments, I watch all my videos. It's something I stopped doing a year ago when I got saturated with projects. But today that I'm only focused on creativity. I watch all my episodes. So for me, my own taste ends up becoming like an indicator of where to move the bar. I am a very harsh critic of myself. I mean, that, for example, has also allowed me to shape the way I ask questions or interview people. So, yes, I do consider it. Of course I do. I also don't want to end up making videos for myself and being there with a tinfoil hat, talking to myself. But no, that's not everything. But for me, the audience is like advice from someone you respect. If you know that someone you respect tells you something wrong, you take it into account. I mean, that's how I see my audience. I treat them like slaves. But you're not a slave. Like my parents told me at the time not to put my name on my channel. I respect that. I understand that at that time, starting from the position they were in, I perfectly understand where that advice was going. But ultimately the opinion or decision, sorry, ultimately is mine to make. That's how I see my audience as someone I respect. And I think it's the greatest compliment a creator can give their audience to say, well, I'm not a monkey who dances to the rhythm of what they ask me to do. But of course, there's respect and gratitude in that sense to the people who choose to consume me. And even more so today where there is so much competition. Right. What do you think has been your most failed experiment? Something you did say this definitely didn't turn out as I expected. Well, I don't publish the most failed experiments. They happen a lot in a vacuum.
