Many of y’all know that I have been using TherapyNotes as our practice EHR for over 10 years now. I’ve looked at others and I just keep coming back to TherapyNotes because they do it all. If you’re interested in an EHR for your practice, you can get two free months of TherapyNotes by going to thetestingpsychologist.com/therapynotes and enter the code “testing”.
This episode is brought to you by PAR. The new PAR training platform is now available and is the new home for PARtalks webinars, as well as on-demand learning and product training. Learn more at parinc.com\resources\par-training.
All right, folks. Welcome back to The Testing Psychologist podcast. [00:01:00] Glad to be here. Today’s episode is a business episode, and we’re going to stick with the theme of negative reviews.
A few weeks ago, I talked about negative reviews and how to handle those within your practice. Today, I’m talking about negative reviews in the context of podcasting or other services that you might offer. This was spurred along by a negative review that I received back in July 2024. This review stated that I had sold out by running sponsorship ads here on the podcast. I understand that this is a change for folks when that came on board a few years ago, but sponsorships are what help me to continue to do the podcast and produce it at a relatively high level.
So today we’re going to break down the science of [00:02:00] sponsorships and of negative reviews. I’m going to talk about the psychology of customer reviews, especially the star rating system that has become so ubiquitous and how we can reframe negative feedback as a sign that our audience actually cares deeply about what we’re doing.
Before we get into that content, you’ve heard me mention these strategy sessions. I’m having a lot of fun doing these strategy sessions, just diving in with folks for an hour and trying to solve some problems, offer some solutions, and sending folks on their way to hopefully improve their practice or their lives. So if you want to dive in and do an a la carte hour without committing to a full consulting path, that’s totally doable. These strategy sessions are available on the website, thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting. You can book a strategy session right there, send me some information about what you want to talk about and we will jump in and try to work our way through those issues.
But for now, we’re going to [00:03:00] talk about the science of negative reviews and what selling out really means.
Okay, people, we are back. As I said, this episode is totally motivated by a negative review that I received back in July 2024. So I’ll say right off the bat, I stopped reading reviews a long time ago. I think part of that was just being content with the reviews. For the record, on Spotify, I’ve got 5 stars out of almost 100 reviews and on Apple podcasts, 4.8 out of almost 200 reviews.
So I think I got to the point where I felt pretty content with the reviews and relatively secure in the content. [00:04:00] But then lo and behold, four weeks ago, my wife of all people was reading through my podcast reviews and she reached out to me and said, “Oh my gosh, have you seen this review?” Of course, I hadn’t and had a miniature heart attack in that moment.
I went to read the review and had this initial reaction, there was a total mix of things. I don’t know, maybe you all experienced this as well. My initial reaction when criticized is to immediately try to find all the ways that this person is wrong and there’s no way that they could be correct about their opinion.
After that initial defensiveness dissipates, I wanted to dive in and really think through what this review was saying and use it as a little bit of a motivation to explore the science of reviews and customer feedback, the psychology of reviews [00:05:00] and present you with some research- guided information on the review process and how we might handle some of these things.
So to kick this off, I’m going to read this review. The title of the review is Oh Brother…. “I’ve always been skeptical when someone is called a sell-out. Everyone has a right to make money and make hay while the sun is shining, but wow, this podcast used to be so good. Now, however, I understand that the host needs to make money to pay for the time, et cetera, of doing a podcast, but come on, talking about how honored you are to work with so and so, please, spare us. If that’s how you feel, that’s a little weird. If you’re just trying to sell it for the sponsor, dial it back.”
Okay, there is a lot to dissect here. I am going to go line by line and address some of these things. So selling out, first of all, let’s talk about [00:06:00] podcast sponsorships in general and a little bit of the evolution of podcast sponsorships. Why do podcasts have ads in the first place? Well, the reality is that podcasting, just like any other form of media, takes time and money to produce. So in my case, I did not start sponsorships until 2021 or 2022, which was a full 4 to 5 years after I started the podcast.
And during that time, I haven’t talked about this a lot, but I turned down a lot of sponsors during that time. I was staying true to the game, as I say, and didn’t want to run the risk of alienating members of the audience or ruining the podcast by putting ads in there. So I stuck to that for a long time. Around 2021 or 2022, I started to change my thinking a bit. A reason for that is it is financial.
So for my podcast [00:07:00] specifically, each episode takes between 1 and 2 hours, sometimes more to plan, record and edit. So with my hourly rate at this point being somewhere in the range of $300 to $350 an hour, that means that even before production costs, I’m investing between $350 and $700 of my “time” per episode. And then there’s post production. I pay someone and it costs at least $50 per episode to handle that. So at minimum, each episode is costing $400 to $750 to produce.
In terms of the actual content and the ads themselves, I run 60 to 90 seconds of ads per episode with the episode links ranging from like 20 to 75 minutes. So that means that about 2-5% of each episode is actual advertising, which is significantly lower than what you’d hear on the radio, [00:08:00] television shows, or YouTube, places like that, or podcasts. So when I check the statistics, it said that about 8-10% of podcast time is dedicated to ads among those shows that do run ads.
But on a broader scale, the podcast industry has seen a major shift. In mid to late 2024, like I said, ads made up about 10.9% of total podcast runtime, which is up from 7.9% in 2021. 55% of listeners have purchased a product that they heard advertised on a podcast. I think what I’m taking from this is that most listeners actually engage with podcast ads more than traditional advertising, especially when those ads are relevant and the host is endorsing a product.
In my case, I was very selective about who would sponsor the podcast. I’ve gotten outreach [00:09:00] from a number of different companies and many of them are not related to testing whatsoever and so I went the route of taking on sponsors who are relevant with an EHR sponsor and a test publisher sponsor.
So all that to say this idea that running ads is a sell-out move, you could make that argument certainly. And to me, the truth is that that is essentially what keeps this content free and accessible for everyone because there are two alternatives; I could do this for free and many people do and it takes up a pretty big portion of my week at this point between recording, editing, producing, looking for guests, doing research and so on. So I could do it for free, but I’ve chosen not to.
The other option is that I could put it behind a paywall and require a monthly subscription [00:10:00] of however much money to gain access to the podcast. I don’t want to do that. I would much rather have 60 to 90 seconds of ads in the podcast to support the time that it takes to make it. So that’s the first step; what do podcast sponsorships even mean and what does it mean to sell out and so forth?
Then I wanted to go a little deeper. I read through the review again and there’s some emotion here. I know y’all can’t see it, but there’s a fair number of exclamation points, double question marks and so forth in this review. So then I thought about the emotional stuff and that led me down this path of the psychology of customer reviews. And that’s both sides.
So one side is, should you read your own reviews? I got to thinking about that after having my own [00:11:00] emotional reaction to this. And then the other side is what even goes into customer reviews. So let’s start with the question, should you read your own reviews? With your practice, I think you have to. Google notifies us anyway when we get a review. So that’s important.
But this is something I’ve heard a lot of creators, business owners and podcast hosts struggling with. I’ve heard people who say I am sober from reviews; they just do not read reviews. And then I’ve heard others who say that they get totally lost in the reviews, for better or for worse. On one hand, reviews offer valuable feedback, but on the other hand, they can also be emotionally draining, especially when they are negative.
And this makes me think of a review that I got way back. This is probably 2 years into the podcast, so 2018 or 2019, something like that. And that review was negative, but it was balanced and it felt helpful. This review said [00:12:00] something like, I was spending too much time in the introductions and there were too many filler comments in the episodes. I wasn’t getting to the good stuff quick enough.
I was able to read that and say, okay, I get that. That makes sense. Let me try to change something based on that feedback. I think it was a 3-star review, whereas this review that I read earlier was a 1-star review. So we’re going to get into that and the extremes that people tend to take when they make reviews, but what does the research say?
The emotional impact; research shows that reading negative reviews as a business owner can trigger a much stronger psychological response than reading positive ones. I think we all know this. It’s due to the brain’s negativity bias, which makes us more likely to dwell on criticism. Many of us have this problem. I certainly do. Clearly, I’m ruminating on this negative review so much that I generated a whole [00:13:00] podcast to work through it.
The other aspect is constructive versus harmful feedback. Studies would suggest that feedback framed in a constructive way can help improve the content and engagement, but overly harsh criticism without actionable takeaways can actually lower motivation and self-confidence. And so looking back at this review, rereading it, there is not much constructive feedback.
So the parts that veer into the feedback realm are, “if that’s how you really feel, that’s a little weird.” So maybe that’s a suggestion to not talk about being honored to work with these sponsors. “And then if you’re just trying to sell it for the sponsor, dial it back.” I wouldn’t call that super constructive or helpful feedback.
One, because I am actually honored to work with these sponsors. As [00:14:00] someone who has a hard time believing that anyone actually enjoys what I do or that I’m producing anything of value, I am actually honored to be partnered with these folks who “believe” in the podcast and are willing to invest money to support it. So there’s no exaggeration there. I am honored to partner with these companies and so I find it hard to buy that back. To be honest, I want to express that feeling.
Let’s take a break to hear from a featured partner.
Y’all know that I love TherapyNotes but I am not the only one. They have a 4.9 out of 5-star rating on trustpilot.com and Google, which makes them the number one rated Electronic Health Record system available for mental health folks today. They make billing, scheduling, note-taking and telehealth all incredibly easy. They also offer custom forms that you can send through the portal. For all the prescribers out there, [00:15:00] TherapyNotes is proudly offering ePrescribe as well. And maybe the most important thing for me is that they have live telephone support seven days a week so you can actually talk to a real person in a timely manner.
If you’re trying to switch from another EHR, the transition is incredibly easy. They’ll import your demographic data free of charge so you can get going right away. So if you’re curious or you want to switch or you need a new EHR, try TherapyNotes for two months absolutely free. You can go to thetestingpsychologist.com/therapynotes and enter the code “testing”. Again, totally free. No strings attached. Check it out and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes.
I’m excited to tell you about PAR’s all new PAR Training Platform, an elevated online learning environment with everything you need in one place. This is the new home for PARtalks webinars, many of which offer APA and NASP approved CEs, and [00:16:00] also houses on-demand learning tools and PAR product training resources. Best of all, it is totally free. To learn more, visit parinc.com\resources\par-training.
All right, let’s get back to the podcast.
Getting back to the constructive versus harmful feedback, overly harsh criticism, like I said, without action can lower motivation and self-confidence. There’s also the idea of selective reading. So some experts would recommend only reading reviews at scheduled intervals to avoid the burnout that can go along with reading reviews as a business owner. For example, checking reviews once a month rather than daily can help maintain some perspective and still gather some useful insights.
This led me into this whole thing of how to handle [00:17:00] reviews. I don’t honestly know if I’m going to be doing this because I don’t get that many reviews that frequently and we’re not getting that many reviews in our businesses daily or anything, but you could have a system. So assign someone on your team to filter the reviews and highlight the constructive ones while shielding from the unnecessarily harsh criticism. I like this idea. I might employ my assistant to take on some of that.
Looking for patterns. So a single negative review might not mean much, but if multiple listeners are saying the same thing, then it’s definitely worth addressing. So I’m open to that. And then you can engage selectively. Unlike our client reviews, we can respond to reviews from other businesses when appropriate, but trying to avoid getting defensive. Express gratitude for the feedback even when it is critical.
So all this to say, reviews can be valuable, but if you consume them mindlessly, it can be detrimental to your mental health. So you got to be [00:18:00] strategic about when and how you engage with listener feed.
We all rely on reviews whether we’re looking at restaurants, amazon products or podcasts, but have you ever really thought about how people decide how many stars to give? Have you thought about that for yourself? I think about that a lot. I’m actually a relatively active reviewer on Google, especially of restaurants and especially of places that I like.
I also think about this dilemma of, okay, I just had a mediocre experience; how do I write a review that feels fair? Because in my mind, I won’t go anywhere that has less than a 4-star rating. I wanted to learn a little bit more about that and what the science is behind that. So let’s break that down a little bit.
First, like my experience, people are more likely to leave reviews when they have an extreme experience, either really good or [00:19:00] really bad. And if the experience is just fine, they often won’t bother to do that. The trouble is that people often go to extremes, not necessarily based on the experience or not doing an objective assessment of the experience; if it was great, it’s 5 stars, if it was less than great, it’s 1 star. That seems to be our experience when it comes to what people are doing with their reviews for our practice. People tend to leave reviews when they have an extreme experience,
Research shows that, this makes sense, the same exact rating, let’s say, 3.5 stars is perceived differently based on whether it’s presented visually as stars or numerically as a number. Visual stars will evoke emotions. People tend to assign more meaning to a 3.5-star rating when it’s [00:20:00] presented visually rather than numerically because they are associated with a more negative or positive experience based on personal bias, essentially. However, numerical ratings feel more precise. So when customers or consumers see a 3.5 numerical rating, they interpret it in a more logical, neutral way, rather than emotionally associating it with past experiences.
There’s also the phenomenon of rounded perception. Studies would suggest that people perceive a 4.0-star rating much more favorably than a 3.9-star rating, even though they’re nearly identical simply because of how the brain processes rounded numbers as more trustworthy or “complete.” I’m totally guilty of this; I will not go anywhere that has a 3.9-star rating or below. It’s only 4 stars or above, and preferably 4.5 stars or above, and if I’m being really honest, 4.8 stars or above. [00:21:00] So lots of emotions here.
Other factors that might influence star ratings include this whole thing; Expectation Confirmation Theory. So if an experience meets or exceeds expectations, people will leave higher ratings, but if it falls short, even slightly, they will leave lower ratings. That’s the phenomenon I was speaking to earlier, where if things were great, that’s good. It’s 5 stars. If it was less than great, it can be 1 star really easily.
There’s also social influence bias. So if you get early negative or positive views, it can sway later ones. So if the first review is glowing, future reviewers tend to be more positive, but if it’s bad, the negativity spreads.
And then there’s the halo effect where a single positive or negative aspect can color the entire review. And this is also playing into that 5 star versus 1-star situation. So in my case, this listener who dislikes the ads apparently ignored the rest of the [00:22:00] content and any value that might’ve brought because it ended up as a 1-star review.
The takeaway is star ratings are not objective measurements of quality. They’re pretty emotionally and socially driven. That’s important to remember when receiving or giving feedback.
So what do we do? I’m just walking through the journey here in terms of reframing this negative feedback. I had a pretty substantial emotional reaction at first, and had to work through that, but then, recognizing the flip side, negative reviews are largely emotional, then how should we handle them?
I like the idea of reframing. We all know this concept. When somebody takes the time to leave a review, positive or negative, it actually shows that they really care about the content. So in this case, this listener who left the negative review was clearly invested in the podcast. They said at one point, this show used to be so good, which tells me, hey, they’ve been listening for a long time. They [00:23:00] felt ownership about the content. They felt connected to the content. And then introducing the ads was like a big personal change for them.
And that to me, in this reframe model, is a sign of strong audience attachment and not indifference. And so I would much rather take attachment and engagement versus indifference. So that’s what I’m trying to do, instead of viewing the negative reviews as personal attack, which is easy, I can try to see them as a reflection of deep listener engagement. You could do the same. That could apply to your business, your practice, it could apply to other businesses or other content that you’re putting out there as well, or even with your kids.
So a disengaged audience won’t care enough to leave feedback at all. Any feedback really helps shape the direction of the podcast, so try to pull any nuggets of helpful feedback or constructive feedback. It’s impossible to please everyone, but to try and understand the common concerns can help improve the [00:24:00] experience of everyone.
To start to wrap up, the place that I’ve landed is that I’m going to pay a little more attention to the reviews. I realize I’m doing myself a disservice by not reading the reviews, because people put time and energy into leaving reviews and I need to respect that. I want to cruise through and take anything that I can from the reviews. It’s part of my personality, for better or worse. It’s a flaw to some degree that if a review is positive, it’s like a sigh of relief. I see the 5 stars and I’m like, Oh, thank goodness and move past it.
My goal here is to dive a little deeper into all the positive reviews and take the feedback from those. I want to know what’s working well and I’m also respecting the time and energy that people put in to leave those reviews. [00:25:00] For those of you who are out there who are listening who have left reviews, I really appreciate it. It helps and like I said, I’m recommitting to reading those reviews and incorporating that feedback. As always, I’d still invite you to share those thoughts and I really appreciate it.
At the end of the day, the goal is just to provide valuable, free content to all the listeners. Sponsorships do make that possible. Of course, I genuinely appreciate the community that’s grown around this podcast and the Facebook group. Whether y’all love every decision I make or not, I know that not everything’s going to land 100% awesome with everyone, but I really appreciate the engagement and all the time and energy that y’all put into listening and reviewing the podcast. Thank you.
All right, y’all. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. Always grateful to have you here. I hope that you take away some [00:26:00] information that you can implement in your practice and in your life. Any resources that we mentioned during the episode will be listed in the show notes so make sure to check those out.
If you like what you hear on the podcast, I would be so grateful if you left a review on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
And if you’re a practice owner or aspiring practice owner, I’d invite you to check out The Testing Psychologist mastermind groups. I have mastermind groups at every stage of practice development; beginner, intermediate, and advanced. We have homework, we have accountability, we have support, we have resources. These groups are amazing. We do a lot of work and a lot of connecting. If that sounds interesting to you, you can check out the details at thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting. You can sign up for a pre-group phone call and we will chat and figure out if a group could be a good fit for you. Thanks so much.
[00:27:00] The information contained in this podcast and on The Testing Psychologist website are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast or on the website is intended to be a substitute for professional, psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please note that no doctor-patient relationship is formed here and similarly, no supervisory or consultative relationship is formed between the host or guests of this podcast and listeners of this podcast. If you need the qualified advice of any mental health practitioner or medical provider, please seek one in your area. [00:28:00] Similarly, if you need supervision on clinical matters, please find a supervisor with expertise that fits your needs.Click here to listen instead!