Perhaps you've heard this story from the 1980s.
It's about Van Halen. While on tour, the rock
band Van Halen included an interesting line item
in their rider. Now, if you don't know, a rider
is basically a contract for a stage performance
and it includes everything from where the band
wants to stay, accommodations and things like
that. to how they want the stage set up and designed
to what they want in their green room or dressing
room. And so this was a line item for something
they wanted in their dressing room. M &M's warning,
absolutely no brown ones. And this was in all
caps. So again, M &M's warning, absolutely no
brown ones. It's not that they hated brown M
&Ms. After all, all M &Ms taste the same, right?
The color of the M &M doesn't affect the flavor.
Or that they were divas. They weren't divas.
As David Lee Roth explained in his autobiography,
Crazy from the Heat, they had a lot of important
safety clauses in the rider as well. Van Halen's
show was one of the first highly technical shows
in the industry and a lot could go wrong. The
M &M's clause made sure a venue read the entire
writer. So here is an excerpt from David Lee
Roth's book, and I'm just going to read it verbatim.
So when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown
M &M in that bowl, well, line check the entire
production. Guaranteed you're going to arrive
at a technical error. They didn't read the contract.
Guaranteed you'd run into a problem. Sometimes
it would threaten to just destroy the whole show.
Something like literally life -threatening. This
is a pretty great test. After all, like they
had pyrotechnics and rope work and the flyer
thing that I forget the name of and harnesses
and stuff. And if a venue couldn't even do something
as secure M &Ms minus the brown ones, what gave
them confidence that they did the pyrotechnics
the right way? So anyway, I think this is a really
great test and I've decided to implement it for
my podcast guest pitches. As you know from a
previous episode or any of the million times
I've written about it, podcast pitches are getting
worse. AI is making them so much worse. Shockingly,
despite my best efforts, this hasn't gotten through
to the biggest offenders, guest pitching agencies.
In the intervening time since I wrote my article
about AI making podcast guest pitches work, again,
this was like June 2024, And now when I'm recording
this in July 2025, they have seemed to degrade
even more following this all too common format.
Hey, Joe, I loved your recent episode about and
then completely AI generated summary. It reminded
me of client name who something that may or may
not be related to episode. So if you can't tell
what the fill in the blanks were, I'll link the
article. And then just more AI slop. And I've
attached their one sheet. When can we get them
on the show? Looking forward to hearing from
you. And if you're wondering if this is just
like an overgeneralization of the pitches I'm
getting, here is a real... I'll read it verbatim.
I will... I'll censor the client information
because it's not their fault. I mean, I guess
it's their fault they've hired a crappy agency,
but they... Probably don't know this. This is
a real one I've gotten twice from the same person.
Hi Joe, I just listened to your episode Automate
to Build Relationships and couldn't agree more
with your message about using automation thoughtfully.
Your point about not automating away humanity
really resonated with me, especially when you
emphasized that relationship building isn't a
numbers game. I'm reaching out because I have
a guest who I believe would be perfect for your
show. especially given your recent discussion
about the right way to approach automation. Known
as the is the founder of and has made it his
mission to help entrepreneurs automate with purpose,
not just for the sake of automation. I'm going
to tell you again, I got this pitch twice, two
different times because I have two different
shows. and I'm sharing it because it's so blatantly
obvious that they didn't listen to the episode
which was, by the way, less than three minutes
long. That's right, it was a voice note. Now,
I've offered a ton of advice on how to improve
guest pitches, but what if you're the podcaster
that's getting pitched? How can you separate
the wheat from the chaff? I personally have a
forum that goes to Notion where I can quickly
evaluate guests. Naturally, you can join my mailing
list over at Casabona .org slash join to get
a copy of that automation. But I also have a
specific question I'm looking for, and I should
I should jump ahead here, not jump ahead. I should
I should backtrack maybe and say that I do read
every guest pitch. I read every one of those
crappy emails. Because I have gotten good guests
from them. My friend Jackie Schiff. And my friend
Elizabeth Howell. And my friend Brittany Lynn.
Brittany Lynn. That makes it sound like I forgot
her name. But my friend Brittany Lynn. They were
not my friends at first. They just had really
good pitches. And then we formed actual good
relationships. Where they understood like who
I was looking for in a guest, right? And so I
do get good pitches and I've had amazing guests
from those pitches. So I do read every one, which
makes my Brown M &M test even more important.
So how I am checking this, I have one specific
question I'm looking for an answer to. And there's
something you should know I get a lot of I get
like four to eight pitches per day on average
because there's actually two places where I'm
accepting guest pitches on my application form
over at streamline .fm slash apply. And on pod
match from my friend Alex and Alex and Filippo.
And like I said it's important to me that I read
every pitch because for all the bad ones I've
gotten I've gotten some fantastic guests coming
through cold pitching. My brown M &M's clause.
It used to be what episode made you want to reach
out? Obviously AI has ruined that question. So
now it's a practical experience question. Guests
must propose a specific time -saving process
system or automation when pitching. This makes
it really easy for me to scan through a pitch
to know if they took the time to read the directions.
and learn about the show. If they don't include
a specific time -saving process system or automation,
it's a really easy rejection. So, and like I
said, it's much better than my previous screener
of what episode made you want to reach out. I
also say I'm not interested in founder stories,
but that still requires parsing the pitch to
see if they are pitching their story or if they're
just really including biographical information.
So once I apply this quick test, if they are
pitching a specific time saving process, the
evaluation becomes much easier. And I'll let
you in on a secret here. If the pitch is good,
even if they don't strictly give me this, right?
If they try or they say, hey, I don't really
have a specific one, but you know, here's what
I'm thinking about. It shows me that the real
reason for this is it shows me they've read the
instructions. If Van Halen saw Brown M &M's in
their green room, they knew their next step was
to do a full walkthrough of the tech again to
make sure there were no issues. If a guest fails
my test, I just reject them. But if they pass,
it's time for the actual work. So that's when
I start researching them and I've tried deep
research through chat GPT. It's fine. I don't
fully trust it though, so I need to go actually
check things. One prompt I do have in guest research,
I can do a whole episode on this actually, but
I do say like be skeptical, verify that they
can speak to the topic they're speaking or they're
pitching. And that's been pretty good. I'll include
one more addendum here. And that is that when
I do get you know, sometimes I will get Pitches
via email where people are asking me What how
do you like to get pitches and so I will say
this I'm currently looking for case studies,
solopreneurs who've saved time by implementing
a process, system, or automation. The criteria
are clear and inflexible. The guest must be a
solopreneur, no employees, only contractors.
The guest must have built a system that saves
them time, and they must be able to speak intelligently
about it. They must also be able to talk about
how the system has had a positive impact on their
business. I am not interested in founder stories
or general tips in some area of expertise. Bonus
points if they are a parent. If the above criteria
is met, you can fill out the form here. That's
usually enough to get the pitching agencies off
my back. I respond once and now they know exactly
how they'd be wasting their time. So now my question
for you is what's your Brown M &Ms? That guest
pitch screening process saves me hours each week
and reduces the friction in evaluating cold pitches.
As you think about your podcast process or really
any screening process, I encourage you to think
about what your Brown M &M's test is. And if
you already have it, let me know. Head over to
streamlinedfeedback .com and tell me about it.
I'd love to hear it. I'll read a few on the show
if I get a bunch. But that's it for this episode
of The Streamlined Podcaster. I hope you enjoyed
it. And until next time, I hope you find some
space in your week.