38: How to Be the Perfect Podcast Guest

Written By Britany Felix
 
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In last week's episode, I mentioned that being a guest on other podcasts is one of the best ways you can grow your own podcast audience.

In this week's episode, I'm giving you several tips for how you can be the perfect podcast guest.

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Transcript

Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more. Welcome to Episode 38 of podcasting for coaches. So right off the bat, you might notice that my voice is a little bit hoarse, right at the moment, I met up with a local podcast editor, I lose about an hour hour and a half away, and he just so happened to be in my city today. And we talked for about two hours, I then came home and for some weird reason ended up getting into like a two hour discussion slash debate with my husband. Now I work from home, which means I don't really talk to people all that often actually ends up talking like four hours straight. Within the past, you know, 12 hours has done a number on my voice. So I do apologize for that. So as promised in the title of this episode, we are going to be talking about how to be the perfect podcast guest. In Episode 37. I mentioned that being a guest on other podcasts is a fantastic way if not one of the best ways to grow your podcast audience. So now that you have taken that advice, and you're going to start being a guest on other shows, let's talk about how you can be the best guest possible. So I'm basically just going to run through a list of tips and suggestions here. The first one is if you're reaching out to these hosts, make sure that you are actually a good fit for their show. So often podcast hosts get pitched by people, or their PR firms or their VA, whoever it is. And they're not even remotely close to a good fit for the show. I can't tell you how many times on this show I have had people pitch me to be a guest when I don't even have guests. Or for my original show where it was a travel podcast, I would have people pitch me who have absolutely nothing to do with travel, or having a location independent business or any of those things. So it was a complete waste of my time. And of course it was a waste of theirs because they're never going to be a guest on a show that's not appropriate. So don't waste your time, or the host time by pitching yourself to shows that aren't actually a good fit. So make sure that you don't just go off of a podcast name. actually check out the show. I'm not saying you have to listen to every episode, I'm not even saying you have to listen to a full episode. Just make sure that they actually accept guests, and that you are a relevant guest for them and their audience. Beyond that, it helps if when you pitch, you actually mentioned something that you like about the show and more than just surface level, hey, I listened. It's great. Pick out something specific so that they know you took the extra two minutes to listen to a certain segment of that show and you pulled something from it that goes a long way with hosts and will set a very positive tone for your interview right from the start. Next, when it comes time to do the interview, make sure that you're ready on time. I know that things happen, believe me, I am literally the worst at this, I will be late to my own funeral. But please, please, please do whatever you can to ensure that you will be on time for your podcast interviews. And by on time, I actually mean a little bit early. If you have to wait on the host That's fantastic. They're going to be so thankful that you're there waiting for them. And they're going to apologize to you for keeping you waiting, not on short 1520 minutes early, obviously. But you know, five minutes early is pretty good. And when you're there, make sure that you're actually ready. Don't still be looking for your headphones don't say you have to go take your dogs out really quick. Make sure that you're there and focused and ready with your equipment all set up. After this, I want you to make sure that you always have headphones always, always, always, always I cannot stress that enough. If you do not wear headphones, what's going to happen is their recording service is going to pick up their voice going into their microphone, but then it's going to pick it up again as it comes out of your speakers. And there is the tiniest delay between those two which means there's going to be a very bad echo and your interview will basically become useless and it will be a waste of their time and yours. Of course when you are doing this interview, make sure that you are in a quiet place that is free of distractions. Now I know not everyone has the ideal setup or can go into a professional studio. But being a podcaster yourself. I hope that you at least have a place that's good enough. And of course along these lines, make sure that you have everything silenced. So obviously silence your phone Wouldn't even leave it on vibrate unless it's like a true emergency. And you need to make sure that you're ready for a call, in which case, you absolutely want to tell the host that ahead of time, because you don't want your microphone to pick up those vibrations, so completely silence it. But don't forget about your computer. I know mine is terrible with giving me all kinds of notifications. And so I try to turn as much of those off as I can. Now some computers have something called like quiet time or night mode, or something like that, where you can silence all those notifications. If you have something like that available on your device, go ahead and do that. When you're doing this interview, make sure that you're actually present, please do not have Facebook open in the background on your computer, please don't be checking your email, please don't be eating, please don't be giving yourself a foot bath. And yes, all of those things are real life examples of things that have happened to me with guests on my show. I have had guests who are sitting in their kitchen and while their spouse was cooking dinner. And it's not because they're being inconsiderate, or they're being rude, it's because they honestly don't believe that you're going to hear that. So please don't be that person as a podcaster, you should know, your microphone is going to pick up whatever is happening. So if you're typing on your keyboard while you're doing this interview, that's going to be picked up and it's incredibly annoying, and it generally cannot be removed. So while you're doing this interview, give that host your full attention. And the next two things I want to suggest are going to help with the connection of the call. So these are things that you should be doing for your own podcast if you conduct interviews. But if you have a solo show, you may not be aware of these things, if you hardwire into your internet connection. So don't use your wireless, but actually get like an ethernet cable, and hardwire into your router or your modem, that's going to provide a stronger internet connection, which means you'll have a more stable call, and it will be a better quality. Second, please do not ever use video unless they specifically asked you to. And if they don't mention in their pre interview communications with you whether or not it's going to be audio only or there's video, I would advise you to get clarification. For one, I just want to know whether or not I have to be camera ready. Or if I can be doing the interview in my pajamas with my hair in a towel. But for to not running that video is going to again help you have a stronger connection, aka a better quality interview. So those are the actual kind of physical things that you can do. But now I want to talk about presenting yourself as a guest on this show. So this is most likely their listeners first introduction to you. Since you're doing this because you want to entice them over to your podcast you want them to like you, or you want them to hire you or whatever the objective is, you want to come off like you know what you're talking about. Some things that people often forget when it comes to this is that there are things you can do when you're speaking that make you sound like you're not confident in what you're saying, which therefore makes you sound like you don't know what you're talking about. If you want to sound more competent, and more confident, avoid stammering nail your elevator pitch. Whenever somebody asks you for your website, or wherever people can find you don't start off with saying, um, it's most likely that that's going to be one of the last questions expected it's coming up, have that elevator pitch ready to go so that you're not stammering work on eliminating all of those crutch words and filler phrases. This takes practice, I still do this in podcast interviews, and I've been doing them for three years now. But when you're aware of this, you can improve it, which means that if they edit, there will be less editing for them. And if they don't edit, you'll come off sounding better right from the start. Another thing I want to mention, and this is especially important for women, we have a tendency to say the word just this is a word that I actually use fairly frequently. But we do it in a way that almost negates what we're saying or takes the power away from it. So for example, if someone is asking you how long you've been in business, how long have you been a coach, and you say, well, I've just been doing it for about six months. That sounds entirely different when you say I've been doing this for six months, and I have learned so much in that time period. Those are two totally different things there. One is very confident and empowering. And the other one is, I've only been doing this for six months. So I don't really have quite as much experience. You know, you're taking all of your power away when you use that word. So I want you to try to eliminate that during these interviews. So similar to this as constantly asking the host to reaffirm what you're saying. And this is by constantly saying things like you know, or right. You don't need to do that. You're the expert. You don't need them to confirm what you're saying. You don't need them to validate whatever thought or statement you just said. Be confident in what you're saying. You know what you're talking about. You're an expert. So don't ask for validation. Another thing that people tend to do when they do podcast interviews Especially if they're not super comfortable with it, is they tend to respond to every question in the same exact way. So every time a host asks a question, please do not start off with saying, that's a good question. Especially when you do it every time not every question is amazing or fantastic. And some of them a lot of times are pretty mediocre. When you do that, it comes off more, that you're not quite sure what your responses yet and you need a couple more seconds to answer. So if that's the case, just take that time, just take a breath, and then say whatever it is that you want to say. And again, I want to make sure I mentioned that these are not things that you're going to get right off the bat. These are things that may actually even be a little bit distracting in the beginning, because you're going to start noticing that you do a lot of these things, because that's natural. But being completely natural doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to come off as the expert that you really are. And eliminating these things doesn't mean that you're being inauthentic. It just means that you're presenting yourself and your business in the best light possible. And lastly, if you are like me, and you tend to cuss or curse, however you pronounce that I can cuss like a sailor, I don't on this show, because I don't usually need to. But in my podcast interviews, I kind of let my hair down a little bit. And I do cuss if that's okay with the host. Because that is how I speak naturally. So if you are like being in that sense, I want you to ask the host right up front, if that's okay. Some people obviously choose to not have profanity in their podcast. And there could be a number of different reasons, they could have a moral objection to it. Or it could just be because they know that if you mark a podcast episode explicit, then the entire podcast is no longer available in several countries around the world. Now, granted, they're not countries you're going to likely have high downloads from, but that's the host choice, they want to be available in those countries. So if someone cuts us on their show, they have to either find a way to remove that, or they have to be bid out, which is more work for them. So if they have a show where there's no cussing, and you cost like Gary Vaynerchuk, they may decide to just not even release your interview because they don't want to mess with it. So just make things easier on yourself and ask that right up front. So those things are gonna make you the perfect guest to the host. But if you really want to draw those listeners in, make sure that you're giving them something as well. So this is a little bonus. And that is to have something available for that audience have a resource of some kind, whether that's a discount on a product, or an E book, or a free call with you, whatever makes sense for your business, having that ready to go and available for them to mention in the show, along with any kind of affiliate code or discount code. So that you can mention that live on the show is going to make things easier for the host. And it's also going to win the favor with the audience. And it's going to get them connecting with you directly further. So those are all of my little tips to help you become a perfect podcast guest. Some of these you can implement right now and some of these are going to take time. I am in the show notes for this episode going to have links to two other articles with some more suggestions. One is actually seven strategies for being a great podcast guest. And the other one is the top 10 mistakes that podcast guests make. So again, you can find those by going to the show notes at podcasting for coaches. com, click on the podcast tab in the main menu and go to this episode, which is number 38. So before I wrap up today, I have two special announcements. The first one is that I am going to be increasing my one on one podcast launch consultation rates. So it is going to become a little bit more expensive to work with me. I will be doing that in January. So if you have been thinking about launching a podcast, if you have let another year go by we are at the end of 2018. And you still do not have a show. And you know that it's something you want to finally start doing in 2019, I would suggest that you go ahead and schedule a consultation with me. That way we can see about locking you in on my current rate before that increases in January and some of my spots start to fill up. Secondly, if you cannot afford to work with me one on one, which I know that a lot of people can't and it's totally not fair to leave all of those people out of getting the information they need to get their show out there to the world. I have officially opened up a presale for my online course how to start a podcast for your coaching business, which we'll be launching on February 4 2019. So as part of this special presale, I'm actually offering $100 off of the course. So you can find information by going to PF c course like podcasting for coaches. So PFC course.com or of course it's going to the show notes in this episode. There will also be a link to schedule a call with me to see about some one on one consultation. services in the shownotes as well. As a reminder, this is my last official episode of 2018. I will be spending the next few weeks working like crazy to end up taking a couple of weeks off to go home for the holidays and spend with my family. So I hope that you have an amazing holiday season. I hope that you reflect back on 2018 and it helps you feel proud of what you've been able to accomplish so far and motivated and inspired by everything you can accomplish in 2019. Thank you so much for joining me have a fantastic rest of your year. And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, get additional free resources, receive updates on this podcast and connect with other coaches and consultants who are using a podcast for their business. I'd like to invite you to join the podcasting for coaches community on Facebook. You can either search for podcasting for coach's community on Facebook to find it, or you can use the link that's in the show notes for every single episode of this podcast on my website podcasting for coaches.com

 
Britany Felix
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