From time to time on my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast I’ll allude to the fact that I can’t pretend to think that everyone listening to that particular episode will have heard all of the previously released interviews – especially given that Episode 527 is less than 48 hours away from release.
And so, when I hear people from time to time suggesting that an old blog be reissued, I start to see that maybe re-purposed is a little better approach. But to go one step further, today I’m going to sort of ‘update’ a blog I wrote at the end of July last year – again, making sure that I don’t assume that every reader of this week’s post has seen all that I’ve been putting up each Monday for the last, gosh, not only several months but several years!
Last summer, on July 31st to be exact, I wrote a blog titled, “Ghosting People in 2023? Prepare to Be Found Out,” wherein I told a true story of someone who was booked to do an in-person podcast interview with me, had their representative tell me that they had fallen under the weather and thus needed to cancel, yet that same afternoon – when the interview was supposed to be happening – they were out on a boat, as pictured in a social media post they put up. I believe the word for instances like that is, ‘busted!’
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Will it surprise you, then, when I say that now, less than eight months later, I’ve had a front row seat for a practically similar situation?
Mind you, it brings me no joy to write this, (a) because it means I suffered through similar frustration again, but (b) I realize that there is – to use an expression I’m often heard saying on the podcast – a teaching moment here, again, especially for those of you who didn’t read the July 31st blog AND who could potentially find yourself in a similarly tempting situation.
And to that I say, don’t do it.
I recently had a podcast interview scheduled, to be recorded remotely (the guest calling in). Everything had been confirmed in terms of date, time, how to contact me, and the housekeeping items such as assets sent to me and the usual preparations. So, I was all ready to go and felt it was going to be turnkey, meaning, no reason to think otherwise.
However, just four-and-a-quarter hours before we were set to start, I received an email from the guest’s representative saying that their client was “under the weather” and if there was a chance we could “bump (the guest) til next week.” All I could think of was legendary baseball player Yogi Berra having coined the phrase, “déjà vu all over again.”
And now here’s the plot twist.
I had already that morning been on social media, where I saw that the guest had posted late the night before about a fairly high profile booking that would be – to put it in perspective from the standpoint of me getting ready to record a podcast – a few hours after we’d finish doing our interview!
I wrote back to the representative, asking, “Is (the guest) really under the weather or is it because (the guest) is performing … today?”
This week I’m writing my blog from my hotel room in Las Vegas and the above makes me think of the scene in “Ocean’s Eleven” when Andy Garcia’s character says, “In my hotels, someone is always watching.”
In other words, you put it out on social media. There’s a good chance someone of consequence (potentially detrimental) might see it.
There ends up being a happy ending to this story in that we ended up simply recording earlier than scheduled, which should’ve been the ask instead of claiming to be sick and then wanting to bump it back a week. If you’re a guest on a show, be considerate of the host (and anyone else who might be involved), AND, if you put yourself in a position where you do have to come with your tail between your legs, apologize (which, for the record, this guest did not do).
I can only hope that down the road I’m not having to write another version of this taking place a third time.
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