Episode 59. Dog Days: Andrew Cotter’s Life During Lockdown with the Internet’s Most Famous Labradors

Andrew Cotter is a lifelong dog lover and sports lover. You may recognize his name or voice from his career as a sports broadcaster where he’s announced everything from Wimbledon to the Olympics. But since COVID-19, Andrew is better known as the Dog Dad to the internet’s most famous Labradors, Olive and Mabel.

You might imagine that when your career is a sports broadcaster and suddenly there’s a global pandemic and all sporting events are cancelled, that life may suddenly look different overnight. So the first Olive & Mabel video started as a joke for Andrew to poke fun at his situation – a play-by-play video of his dogs eating breakfast. And the world LOVED it and suddenly Olive & Mabel were going viral with millions of views, likes and re-tweets by celebrities. So Andrew kept making videos and kept going viral.

Andrew shares with us behind-the-scenes of making his favorite videos and the challenges of setting your expectations for non-professionally trained dogs to perform on command. And while Andrew just thought he was making some silly dog videos, the feedback he received from people all over the world who found moments of happiness from Olive & Mabel during COVID times was truly meaningful.

Andrew and I also talk about navigating fame, Hollywood and influencer opportunities as introvert in your 40s. Spoiler Alert: You won’t be seeing Olive and Mabel in any dog food commercials.

Andrew is the author of the hilarious and heartfelt books Olive, Mabel & Me and Dog Days: Life in Lockdown with Olive and Mabel.

You’ll also get to hear Andrew’s play-by-play of Olive and Mabel’s antics during our interview.

Andrew & I discuss:

Dog mealtimes;
Andrew’s childhood love of both dogs and sports;
Turning a double major of French & Philosophy into a sports broadcasting career and the differences between broadcasting in the 1990s versus today;
How Olive and Mabel each joined Andrew’s family and how their names were chosen;
What Andrew’s life looked like before COVID-19;
What it was like to go viral with Olive & Mabel videos and which is his favorite;
Behind-the-scenes of producing videos – from coming up with ideas to adjusting your expectations for untrained dogs;
Being a bright spot for people during COVID-19 times;
All the different offers that poured in for Olive & Mabel and Andrew after going viral;
Navigating internet fame as an introvert;
Hillwalking with dogs;
Recognizing that you and your dogs are getting older;
Social media when you’re over the age of 40;
Broadcasting in a post-COVID world;
That time Andrew met Kate Middleton at Wimbledon; and
A theater tour with Olive & Mabel

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