Excerpt from a podcast conversation (Roberto Martínez with Oso Trava) about how Martínez decides whether to publish episode chapters. He describes avoiding manufactured controversy, protecting guests and audience, using informal advisory conversations with guests, and applying a personal ‘decision algorithm’ for episode quality and fit.
If a chapter is going to be a pain in the ass for someone, if I tell them, dude, I don't think we should publish this. It's happened with friends, with people I tell, even they tell me, I don't think this is going to benefit me. Or I tell them, I don't think this. I mean, it's a good idea to publish it and in it stays.
But because of something that was said because of a position they had, or because you simply say, I just don't feel like it's going to come out well, how do you make that decision?
I don't like it when someone comes to my podcast and takes it to task. Yes. I'll be honest with you. I mean, I'm not someone who lends themselves to seeking controversy, to sensationalism. It's not something that attracts me because I also think it sets the stage for how people interact with you later on. If you're a controversial guy who talks about these types of topics all the time, the day something happens to you, leave the people who are dedicated to controversy alone. Your own people are going to treat you that way. And it's not something that I feel proud of after it happens. I mean, I don't like it. Well, I think it's everyone's style. But if it's someone I appreciate, if it's someone I respect, which is one of my criteria for inviting someone to be creative, I think I would also like it if, if I were in their position, the person on this side would tell me, I don't think so. You see, there are people who say, no, it's okay. Publish it. Well, I'm ultimately an advisor and I simply give them a recommend. But there, in that sense, for example, there is no one who you feel has an interview that shouldn't be made public, not only because of him or her and the impact it may have on your guest, but also because of your audience. Because you say, this. This episode doesn't have the quality that I owe to my audience in terms of quality. Right. Because when I'm in a creative episode, I give it my all. I provide all the necessary elements to make a very high quality conversion. If, I mean, if the conversation doesn't go the way I want it to, then there's that approach with the person saying, hey, man, I don't think it worked. I don't think this is contributing, or I don't think this is flowing, and there are times when it simply gets cut off. But in terms of the audience, I at least find the episodes. Interesting. I mean, I follow the systematization, right? I like to systematize and I like to approach my life from a perspective of, let's generate a decision algorithm that doesn't have to depend on. Yeah. Something that I don't have to think about whether to publish or not. So within that algorithm, even of how to keep a project interesting, for me, there are those chapters you don't want. Well, at least for me, I don't want all my chapters to be, oh, how cool, how interesting, how beautiful. What a lesson I learned. There are chapters where sometimes you don't learn anything. There are chapters where sometimes I just get drunk with a friend.
