Hey Matt,

Finally coming up for air and wanted to get this feedback to you.

First off — the show is truly impactful. The stories that the guests are willing to share and along with your ability to contextualize the lessons are AMAZING! Some podcasts share incredible stories, and others shares tactical insights - but we’ve got BOTH! I think this will be our competitive advantage and something that can really set us apart. Also you bring a great sense of light-heartedness to an otherwise challenging (and even somber) situation.

Second — the flow is getting better! There seems to be a natural progression between the 3 parts of the show. Perhaps it may be helpful to brief the guest on the two main sections (challenges and life they’re creating now) so that they know to focus on their past in the first section.

• It’s also really helpful when you summarize or synthesize something that they said. Things like “Okay let’s take a step back…” are great when you want to drill down into something.

Next — Let’s improve the intro! The intros are okay, but I think they have the potential to be amazing. Instead of summarizing the conversation, I think we can structure the intros like this.

1. Welcome the guest - “Welcome to the Eternal Optimist, I am Matt Drinkhahn…. (quick credibility for new listeners)
2. Quick reflection/tip from personal experience - something to create some relatability, break the ice, and ease into the episode.
3. Intro the guest - fill in their background and build up their credibility/expertise
4. Tease something from the conversation - “We talked about this ____ and _____ but I think you’re going to be really surprised when you hear…” or “… but you won’t believe what happened when….”
5. Transition to interview

Also — Let’s change up the first interview question. Typically, you’ve asked them to “tell the audience what they should know” about the guest. However it’s kind of redundant with the intro. So I think it’d be much better to get right into their challenges.

• You can prep the guest and let them know we’ll do a full intro afterwards and start off with a question like, “So GUEST we mentioned a bit in the intro about how you’ve had to overcome CHALLENGE, can you take us back to that time and what was going on?”
• Or even a more pointed question to get straight to the “drama.”

I think those are some great starting points to build on that will make some great improvements to the listener experience.

Am happy and open to hop on a call to talk through any of these things or we can keep rolling!