Podcast Host Tips
First and foremost: do research on the guest before the interview. If they have a podcast themselves, listen to an episode or two. Read their blog. Read their books. Check out their social media. Check out their website. Watch their videos. As you do this research, make notes of topics you’d like to discuss in the interview. Don’t make a list of specific questions, but create bullet points of general topics and questions. The biggest key is to listen to their answers and form the next question based on their previous answer. Be willing to let the conversation happen naturally. Interject your own thoughts and opinions on topics, especially through telling stories. Contribute to the conversation. This makes for a more interesting and entertaining interview, and it makes you more of an expert to where listeners will continue to tune in to your show for you, not just your guests.
This may sound like stating the obvious, but when reaching out to someone you’d like to have as a guest, make sure they will be appropriate for your show and audience and that they offer value to your listeners. Then set up a scheduling link, otherwise it’ll be a bunch of going back and forth.
Tip: When reaching out to big-name guests, it’s important to have a one-sheet that breaks down what your podcast is about, the audience demographics, number of monthly downloads, and other stats.
After they book a time, have them fill out a form that asks for their bio, head shot, website, social media links, their CTA or freebie for the listeners, and any other pertinent information.
Two days before the interview, send a reminder email with the date and time of the interview, along with the link for the interview.
Note: I recommend SquadCast (affiliate link)
over other remote interview options (such as Zoom or Google Meet) as they offer higher-quality audio, record locally, and they don’t compress the files.
Two hours before the interview, send that same reminder email with the link for the interview.
After the interview, send a thank-you email with an estimated release date or general time frame for the episode. If the guest has a podcast of their own that you feel you’d be a pleasant guest for, ask them if they’d like to have you as a guest on your show. This is something that can be worked out ahead of time and is referred to as a “pod swap” where you interview each other for each other’s shows. It makes the most sense to record these back-to-back while you are at it.
Once the episode is released, send them a link to the episode and any social media graphics you’ve created for the episode. Let them know you’d appreciate it if they shared it with their social media followers and email list. This is a great way to leverage your guest’s audience to grow your own audience. But don’t be disappointed if they don’t, because the bigger the name, the less likely they are to share it.
After the episode has been released, don’t let that be the end of the relationship. Keep the line of communication open, especially if you felt a connection with them, because you never know when you could collaborate again. You may also want to inquire if that guest has any connections where they could do an “introduction” for you. What this means is the guest can vouch for you that it was an enjoyable experience being on your show, and can reach out to the relevant connections they have, encouraging those people to guest on your show. One good way of doing this is to have a list of guests you’d like to have on your show, or vice versa. It can work both ways. You never know who someone you meet may know. With each connection you make, that might open up hundreds of other connections.
It’s easy to get guests on your show, but you have to be careful and vet them. You don’t want just anyone on your show. Your time is valuable, as is the time of your listeners. Don’t just accept everyone that contacts you to be a guest. Make sure their area of expertise applies to your audience. Also, make sure they’ve been a guest on other podcasts and listen to two of those episodes to get a sense of how well they respond and elaborate on the various questions you might ask. You want guests you can have a conversation with. Guests who don’t answer questions with one-word or one-sentence answers are what you want. You want guests who tell stories, give examples, offer advice, and insight. You want guests where you walk away from the interview feeling like you’ve learned something about yourself. So for these reasons, it’s important to listen to episodes they’ve been on in the past.
There are several services out there that help you find guests or hosts, but I use and recommend PodMatch (affiliate link).