How To Be An Amazing Podcast Guest

0:01
You have a podcast that promotes your business. Fantastic. Now it’s time to spread your message even further by being a guest on other people’s podcasts. And having that experience creating your own show gives you a huge advantage. Because you know the drill, you already have a good idea of what the podcaster wants, because you’ve been in their shoes, and you’ve got the resume tape to prove it. Today, we’re talking about what you should do to become an amazing podcast guest. Take it away, Mr. radio man. Podcast Your Business.

0:42
Yes, we are ready. Hey, everybody, welcome to podcast your business. My name is Sunny Gault. I’m a podcast coach, and I’m a mentor. And I have been podcasting for 17 years. I’m also the founder and CEO of a company called Independent Podcast Network, I would love for you to check us out at https://independentpodcast.network, we’ve got a ton of free resources on our website. And if you’re ready to monetize with advertisers, we’d love to help you out with that. But today, I’m here to help you create amazing podcasts, specifically podcasts that tie into your business. And we do this by mastering the five P’s of podcasting. Alright, so the five P’s of podcasting is something that I created as a learning technique to help podcasters launch and grow their podcast. So the five P’s are prep, plan, produce, promote, and profit. When we’re talking about prepping, we’re thinking about, should I even start a podcast? What is my incentive for creating a podcast? If someone just tells me I should do it? Or do I have a better reason to do it? Plan we’re getting into the look and feel for our podcasts, and we’re starting to put all those pieces together, produce is actually creating the content, whether you’re doing an audio or video podcast, it is the recording the editing, all that good stuff, remote, how are you going to tell everyone about it, you can have the most amazing podcast in the world. And if no one knows about it, it pretty much doesn’t exist. And finally, profit. How do we make money doing this? Because if it’s tying back into your business, then it’s probably some sort of marketing opportunity, right? Your marketing, you’re getting the word out about who you are and what you do, and it needs to make money for your business. So Mr. radio man, what are we talking about today? Promote.

2:35
That’s right. The key that we’re focused on today is for promote. And today’s topic, when we talk about being a guest on other people’s podcast, it does fall a little bit outside of the scope of working on your own podcast. But this is definitely related. Because the best way and the fastest way to promote your own podcast with any kind of real results is by appearing on somebody else’s podcast, not just any podcast, it needs to be similar to yours, you need to share some demographics. But that is the fastest way to grow your show. And when you get those opportunities, you need to make the most of them, you need to be the most amazing podcast guest that the audience loves. And the guests, the podcast hosts share with one another because it was such a good experience. And believe it or not, that really does happen. So here’s what we’re going to talk about in today’s episode, we’re going to talk about pitching yourself to other podcasts and what’s involved with that, and how do you find shows that you might be a good fit for? And what do you say to them? So we’ll discuss all that prepping for your recording. So let’s assume that a podcast wants to have you on their show, then what do you do, because you have to be prepared. Right? Then we’re going to talk about nailing your podcast interview, I’m gonna give you some of my tips of what I do when I typically appear in other podcasts. And finally, we’ll wrap up with following up after the recording and then promoting the podcast episode that you were just on, which is an important piece in all of this. And we’ll get started with that right after this quick break.

4:13
There are millions of podcasts in the world. So you really need to have a strategy when it comes to how you’re going to promote your show. How are people going to find out about it because this whole concept of build it and they will come that really doesn’t work. Unless you’re like a celebrity or something like that. promoting your podcast through other podcasts is a proven strategy that does work. Swapping promos is great. But if you can actually be a guest on someone else’s show, that’s even better. So how do you get on other people’s podcasts? Well, the first option is wait for an invitation. But unless you’re some sort of household name or you’re making some sort of Have a PR push right? Now, that’s probably not going to happen. Okay, you’re gonna be waiting a long time, it’s probably not the most effective use of your time. So start pitching, what types of audiences could benefit from the information that you have to give. And it doesn’t have to be the exact same genre as the podcasts that you’ve already created. Think outside the box a little bit. For example, when I am making the rounds, talking to people about podcasting, I will talk to entrepreneurs. Okay, that makes sense. I’ve got a podcast about podcasting for your business, I will talk to marketing groups. And I will also talk to podcasting groups. And if I really thought about it, there’s probably a lot more people I could outreach to. But those are really big groups of people already. So I don’t, I don’t have to search that far from that. But think about who could benefit from your content. And then those are the podcasts that you need to search for. You can do Google searches, there are a ton of different like top 10, top 11, top 11, top 100, maybe there’s a top 11 list. But there’s a lot of those kinds of lists out there. Keep in mind, if you are just going for the most popular podcasts out there, it’s going to be harder to be a guest on those shows, there’s simply going to be more picky. So my recommendation is to vary it up a bit, because you never know where your next client is going to come from. It doesn’t have to come from a super huge podcast audience, it could come from a small show, you never know. Right? So start pitching.

6:35
You could pitch yourself or maybe you have a team of people that can help pitch for you. I know for podcasts, your business, I have an amazing colleague of mine, Alexa, and she pitches on behalf of me, which is awesome. She knows exactly what to do. She’s done this a bunch of different times, and it works out really well. The other option is to hire a professional. So there are different teams out there, there are whole businesses that are focused on getting people as guests on other podcasts, you are going to pay more money for that. But it is more of an overall inclusive experience. So they’re thinking about everything, they’re helping you prep, you know, they’re doing a lot of the communication for you. So it really just depends on how, how much you want to be involved, and also how much money you want to spend, you’re going to need some sort of one sheet, and try to keep it to one sheet, please, that promotes you says who you are. And what you do, maybe has some links on it, you can also include some topics that you’d be willing to talk about. And if you want an example of what this can look like, I will include a link in the description for this episode of my personal one sheet. And you can do with that what you like to take what you like and leave what you don’t like. You also need to show them your skills. So if you haven’t already been on a podcast before as a guest, you may want to send them a link to your own podcast. If it is a video podcast, and you only have an audio podcast that you’re doing for your business, I do recommend sending them something have you on camera, so they get a better idea of who you are. And that will help them determine if you’re going to be a good fit for their show. So start emailing or outreaching. You can do email, you can do social media. But then you will also need to do a little prep work. Don’t just dive into sending email, oh, I found this show and they’ve got X amount of listeners. So let’s email them.

8:37
Here are some of my tips that I make sure that my own team does, in order to make sure that this is going to be a good fit not only for us and getting exposure, but for the podcast as well. You have to listen to the podcast, whoever’s pitching should listen to the podcast, make sure they accept guests, the worst thing is to reach out to a podcast and pitch yourself. And they don’t even have an interview format. That just shows the podcaster that you have no idea what their show is about why would they want to have you on as a guest even if they did interviews, so don’t make that mistake. Also know that many podcasts plan months ahead. So you may be wanting to make the rounds on podcast because you’ve got a book launch or you know you’re doing some sort of tour or live performance or something like that plan months in advance. Honestly, I’m one of those podcasters that kind of flies by the seat of my pants, at least for podcasts, your business, I literally record this and then I put it up. But most podcasters like to plan in advance especially if there’s multiple guests they have to coordinate and things like that. So consider that suggests possible show topics right so this could be in your one sheet we briefly talked about that. Another cool idea. I’ve seen this done a couple times. Heinz is to tie in the topics with things that are relevant right now. So maybe there’s things that are coming out in the news that ties in with whatever your area of expertise is, right? So tie that in as much as possible, because you’re making yourself more relevant. Maybe they’ll get you on the show sooner, and get it out to the public sooner if you can make yourself more timely, right? Also, you need to think about do downloads matter, when it comes to the podcast that you’re going to be a guest on? Do you really care how many downloads they have? Because I will tell you now, it is difficult to get accurate numbers on how many listeners or viewers if it’s a video podcast that a podcast has without asking them. And please don’t do this, please don’t ask them and you don’t like the number and say, oh, sorry, I don’t want to be a guest on your show. Like, that’s really tacky. Please don’t do that. So decide in advance. If downloads really matter, you might be able to get some information out there before you outreach. But be prepared for shows to say, well, you know, last month we had 100 people listen, which is great. There’s nothing wrong with that. But you as a guest, you have to do prep work, you know, you this is an investment on your time as well. So make that decision. Now if you’re okay with that.

11:34
Now, let’s talk about prepping for your recording. I’ve been a guest on several podcasts that have done pre interviews, and oh, the the jury’s kind of out for me on pre interviews, I understand the purpose behind it. But I also think it is kind of lazy on the podcast host part. Because there shouldn’t be, as we talked about earlier, enough information provided to the podcast host. So they don’t necessarily feel like they have to do a complete pre interview with you. Meaning if you give them a one sheet, if you give them examples of you on another podcast or a video or something like that, they should really have most of the information they need to do the interview, everything else should be able to be done and handled through email, or whatever communication that you’re going back and forth with. So I’ve done pre interviews, my biggest pet peeve with them is when guests are sorry, when hosts of the podcast, do pre interviews, like a month before the recording, that’s ridiculous. If you’re going to do a pre-interview, do it very close to the time that you’re going to be recording, or else everyone’s going to forget what you talked about in the pre interview, this is literally happened to me where it was like a month and a half later that we actually did the recording. And honest to god, this is gonna sound bad, but I couldn’t even remember who the host was. And I’m going through my notes and stuff. And I’m like, When did I do this pre interview, I don’t even remember. So that’s my advice with pre interviews. If the host wants it, that’s fine. But just make sure it’s done close to the time of the recording, or it’s not going to help anybody. And again, you know, whether you’re doing a pre interview, or you know, you’re just emailing back and forth, listen to their content, maybe go back a little bit, listen to different types of episodes, maybe they’ve had guests on in the past that are more similar to your style, or what you talk about, maybe check out some of those episodes, also get to know the show format. You shouldn’t show up for recording and not really know what’s going on. And part of this is on the podcast hosts, they should really provide you with more of a breakdown of what to expect. But my experience has been a lot of times, I haven’t been given any information from the podcast host. So I show up. And if I hadn’t done my background of really knowing what the show format was, I might be a little lost, because you are a guest on their show. So you need to play according to their rules you need to fit into whatever this format is, if you’re going to agree to be a guest on a show. So know what that format is in advance. Also do this research to get to know the host and their personality, get a feel for how they speak. Are they more friendly? Are they more serious? You know, when they’re interviewing people really, you know, really listen to that? Do they expect short answers or do they let the guests talk for a while? You know, another thing I think is helpful is when the podcast guest sends bullet points or questions ahead of time just as a recommendation like Hey, I know we’re going to be talking about xyz, I came up with a list of possible questions that you could ask, based on my experience and my expertise. What’s nice about that is the podcast host can take that. And they may not use it at all. But it could give them other ideas of questions to ask. So when people give me that, like, let’s say they come on one of my podcasts, like one of my parenting shows, that is definitely helpful, because at least I know what they want to talk about, and what they feel most comfortable talking about. Am I just going to ask the questions that they send me? Heck, no, this is a conversation, you don’t really know where the conversations going to go. But at least I know what they’re comfortable with. And you know, maybe those are the best questions to ask in the beginning. So the conversation sounds more natural, because those are topics they already feel comfortable talking about, maybe throw those in, in the beginning, get them warmed up a little bit, and then take the conversation where you want to go. So again, back as you as this guest on the show, I recommend that you send out some questions or bullet points in advance ahead of the recording for the podcast host.

16:11
And here’s, here’s an important part here. Understand that your job, as a guest on a podcast is to provide valuable information and to also be entertaining. Your job is not to sell your business or your products or your services. That is not why the podcast host is having you on their show. I know that’s what you want to do. Okay, that’s the whole point in us doing this. Yes, we want to give good information we want to be, you know, good people and help other people. And I get that. But you also want to promote your stuff. But just keep in mind, that is not why you were there. You are there to be a benefit to the audience. Don’t ever forget that. Also, I think it’s important to ask the podcast hosts, what can I say? And what can I not say? There may be some touchy subjects and whatever it is that you’re talking about, that may be off limits, and it may make the podcast host feel uncomfortable if you go into certain areas. So that’s a question that I always ask. I may give specific examples. Hey, can I talk about this? Or is that going too far? So that’s a great question to ask as well. Know what you are going to promote. So your podcast host should give you an opportunity to promote? It’s usually at the very end. Hey, how can people find out more about you? You know, what do you have going on that you’d like to tell people about? Usually there’s a question like that, at the end, make sure that there is and if it never goes there, I would even say something to the podcast host to say, oh, you know, we didn’t have a chance to really promote this, this is really important to you to me, do you mind if we just record a separate little bit that can be edited in later, because you should have an opportunity to do that, unless it’s made clear from the very beginning. There’s no promotion whatsoever. And in that case, I don’t really know why you’d go on the show. Not, not if this is all about promoting your podcast and promoting your business. When it gets to the point in the show where you can do a little bit of promotion, I want you to limit the promotion to one thing that you want to promote, and it should be free. So maybe you have a free download. Or again, in my case, I just promote, hey, I’ve got a free podcast. It’s called podcast your business, you can subscribe on any podcasting app. And that’s it. That’s all I say. Because I know once they get to the point to listen to this podcast, that’s when I’m going to promote other stuff. So give them something, limit it to one thing and make it free. Also, your podcast host or producer perhaps should be sending you a recording link in advance, you need to make sure you test out that recording link and any other equipment. So you know, if you plan to use a microphone that you don’t always use, make sure you test all of that in advance. You don’t want to show up on the day of and then realize that something isn’t working prior. And that also goes for your computer. So if you are recording remotely and you’re using a computer, run any kind of updates, make sure your browser is up to date, any other recording things that you might be using any programs, run any updates prior because those updates always happen at the worst possible time. Like when you have a podcast interview.

19:41
Now let’s talk about nailing your podcast interview. How how do you make this like an amazing appearance where you just walk away feeling amazing, knowing that you provided great content for the audience, knowing that you put yourself in the best light and you were also able to promote something thing that you’re really passionate about how do you do this? First of all, please show up on time for the interview. And if you are running late, please let the podcast host know. Or perhaps there’s a producer, let them know what’s going on. If you think there’s even a slight chance that you could be late, let them know in advance. Next, be conversational. Most podcasts are all about conversation and being real. So let’s assume for a second that that’s exactly what the podcast host wants, give them that tell stories, and also involve the podcast host. One of the things that I love to do, and there’s a wrong way and a right way to do this. But I love to involve the podcast host and even ask the host a couple of questions. So let’s say my I’m giving an example about something I’m like, Oh, my goodness, have you know, have you ever had that happen to you where you’re sitting in line, and then someone comes up to you and says, and that’s crazy, right? And then they’re like, oh, my gosh, I had that this one time. So you start this kind of just chit chat. And it makes the audience it kind of gets the audience excited a little bit, you know, it’s a little voyeuristic. But, you know, you guys are having a good time, and your audience is having a good time. So involve the podcast host as much as possible. I also like to say the name of the podcast host, because I would do that with my friends and conversation, right? So be like, Oh, hey, Betsy. Yeah, this one time I was doing this, or Oh, my gosh, you won’t believe what happened to me, then Betsy, this was crazy. Let me tell you this quick story. So involve the podcast host name. It just reaffirms to them that you are present, you are in this conversation. This wasn’t something that someone just scheduled for you and you just showed up and had no idea what you were doing. No, you are invested in their show. And that’s important. Also, make sure you stay on time. Now ultimately, this is a producer’s job, or perhaps the podcast host job. But sometimes guests really throw conversations off because of their yapping, yapping, yapping, yapping. So make sure that you know, you know what the, you know, the show once with the podcaster one. So do they want short little, you know, answers? And you know, can you expand on things, but also just don’t go off on a tangent and totally throw off their time for the show. follow their rules. So whatever that is, hopefully they’ll tell you in advance. But if not ask what are the rules of the show, I want to make sure that I follow the rules. And please don’t lose your cool. Even if the podcast host does something insane completely insults you whatever. Just know keep in the back of your mind, this is for a limited period of time. Maybe it’s a 30 minute podcast, I’ve also been on 10 minute podcast is this for a very small portion of your life, okay, you can handle it, always stay professional, you could get off the podcast and go scream into a pillow and say you’re never going to you know, talk to this party, you can do all of that in your head and in the privacy of your own home. But just keep it there. Don’t ever lose your cool after the recording.

23:16
So we’re going to talk a little bit now about follow up as well as promotion. I think it’s a great idea for someone whether it’s you or someone from your team to send a thank you email afterward just say, hey, it was great being on your show. I really liked that we were able to talk about XYZ, you know, you’re really professional, whatever is real, okay, be real about things, but send them a quick email just thanking them. Also make sure that they have everything they need. And what I mean by that is, a lot of times hosts will ask for a photo, a bio, different links that you want to promote every show is a little bit different. And sometimes they want this way in advance. But if they haven’t asked you for that, make sure they have that after your recording. I always ask when the episode is going to be released. And I may even ask that even before we schedule, schedule the recording, because again, a lot of times the show’s plan out months and months in advance. But you know, have a good idea before you even get into all this, you know hosting and you know, being a guest on people’s podcast, have an idea when it’s going to be released. But then afterward, I would also ask the question, do you have a specific date and then follow up with them. We know when that date comes, follow up with them and make sure that something you know the episode actually was released. Now let’s talk a little bit about promotion because this is a really important part of being a guest on a podcast. Most podcasters complain that they have guests on the show and they never promote the episode. That’s ridiculous. Why would you go on a podcast and not promote it unless the end product was bad? That is one case. Here’s where I will be like, Ooh, okay, I’m probably not going to promote this, or maybe they had some really weird edits. Speaking of editing, I don’t think it’s smart to, you know, require or really even ask if you can hear the final version of the episode, before it’s released. That’s just my personal take on things, it is their show you are a guest, you are not a sponsor or an advertiser, you are a guest. And they will do with their show what they want. Now, you may not like that, and, you know, those, that’s your feeling. That’s okay, Joe, go on the show again, lesson learned, right. But I don’t really feel like you have the ability, or you’re just not in a position to make requests like that. So I recommend not doing that. One thing I think you can do, especially if you want appear on other shows, is to ask if they have any other podcasts or any other friends, know of any other people that would be a good fit for you to appear as a guest on their show. And you’d be surprised again, you know, podcasting isn’t such a cutthroat business, that podcasters don’t share resources, you know, at least the good ones, like the ones that don’t do that you really don’t want to be on their shows. Anyway, they’re kind of snooty patootie. But most podcasters are really cool about that. In fact, I’ve been on multiple shows where the guest, or the podcast host has even said to me, oh, my gosh, you are such a good gas, I would love to recommend you to this podcast or that podcast. So make sure if they don’t send you that information, follow up with them. Those are great leads for you. And that, my friends is how you become an amazing podcast guest that gets rebooked and booked for other podcasts and helps you grow your business, which is the whole point of why you launched your podcast, right? So I do have some free stuff for you. Hang on, we’re gonna take a quick break. We’ll be right back.

26:57
So we talked earlier about emailing and outreach to podcasts that you want to be a guest on. And you may be wondering, well, what do I send them? What should I say? So I’m gonna give you guys the email template that Alexa uses when pitching me to be on other podcasts. I don’t recommend that you just copy and paste this into every email. In fact, you can’t because there’s little sections where you’ve got to do a little bit of research and insert copy here, right, so you can’t just copy and paste. But I also recommend that you change this up that you make it something you would actually say something that fits your podcast, but sometimes we just don’t know where to start. So I’m going to give you our email template for pitching yourself as a podcast guest and the link for that is going to be in the description. For this podcast episode. We’ve also made a ton of changes over at Independent Podcast Network, we’ve totally revamped the website. And we put all of our content that used to be behind a paywall. We’ve made it available for free. So earlier in the episode I was telling you about the five P’s of podcasting. That is an entire course that I used to sell that I am I’ve now made completely free. It’s available on the website. There’s like 30 different videos, but you could just pick and choose what applies to you and your podcast. But the whole point is to cover those five P’s. So you can have a successful podcast earlier on and not make all the mistakes that a lot of podcasters make. Also for those of you out there that are interested in dynamic ad insertion, I just created a brand new course again, it’s completely free on the website (https://independentpodcast.network, as well as on our YouTube channel, which is all about why you should consider dynamic ad insertion, which is a way to insert ads into your show and to remove them electronically, and how to format your show and all my tips and tricks that I’ve used over the years is in this course. So be sure to check out the website Independent Podcast Network for all of that great content. Until next week, remember…. you should start a podcast!