49: Tips for Being a Great Podcast Interviewer
"If you’re curious about it or you’re confused by it, your listeners probably are as well."
When it comes to interviewing guests on your podcast, it boils down to the simple fact that you're just having a conversation with another human being. It's just one that happens to recorded so others can feel like they're participating in the conversation as well.
It's with that in mind, that I bring you these tips to make the conversation much more pleasant for both you and your guest and make it a much more interesting experience for your listeners.
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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 49 of podcasting for coaches in this episode we're diving in how to become a better interviewer so obviously if you only do solo shows you can probably skip past this episode unless you think you're going to start incorporating interviews i'm going to break this down in the terms of the process for the interview so from before you even get the interview scheduled until you are wrapping up the interview so first and foremost what is going to really make you stand out as a great podcast host in general which translates into being hopefully a good interviewer is having an easy way for them to schedule their interview i have talked about this multiple times on this show if you do not use a scheduling system of some kind already i would almost say it's an absolute must that you have one because it will make you look so much more professional and polished and like you know what you're doing and it will make things so much easier for both you and the guests you will have less headaches less hassle it'll take less time all of those things are fantastic especially for the extremely busy coach or consultant in episode 28 of the podcast i went through a full breakdown of setting up my favorite scheduling system acuity scheduling it's what i use for all aspects of my business and my podcast it's what i've been using for several years now i have tried schedule once wasn't a huge fan i've gone through calendly which is another very popular option is totally perfectly okay i've just gone through it as a guest and it wasn't my favorite experience so i choose to go with acuity and i will have links in the show notes to this episode which you can find by going to podcasting for coaches com click on the podcast tab in the main menu and then go to episode number 49 so there'll be links to episode 28 acuity and calendly in the show notes the next step of the process is to prep them before the call now this can actually start while they're scheduling it so you can build into your scheduler some information of where the call will be scheduled how they're going to access it what they need those types of things but i also recommend having a confirmation and reminder email setup the benefits of using a scheduling system is that it will do this automatically for you you just set the template and it automatically gets sent every single time so in these confirmation reminder emails in this prep that you want to give them before the interview make sure that you tell them where and how the call is actually going to be conducted don't make them email you and say wait how are we doing this where are we going to talk is it going to be on skype is it going to be on zoom give them that information ahead of time so they don't have to contact you about it i also recommend not creating individual calls and whatever platform you're using so with things like squad cast and zoom and a couple of the other programs you can actually schedule specific calls and it will give you an individualized link to each call i don't recommend that because that's more work for you then you have to go in or your va does and that's money from you to pay them to do that and actually set up each one of these calls and then email the guests so someone has to manually email the guests that link whereas if you use something in zoom which please don't use zoom for your interviews but if you do there are things like just your general meeting id or with squad cast it's a reusable session is what they call it and so that's the same link every time for every single person so you can just put that right into your confirmation and reminder emails there's no calls that have to be created or scheduled there's no links that have to be sent individually or manually it's so much easier next and these confirmation and reminder emails i want you to also give them tips for their recording environment so best practices essentially you may think this person knows exactly what they're doing especially if they're another podcaster or they claim that they've been a guest on hundreds of other podcasts but i promise you if someone can do something wrong in an interview it will happen they will do it you can never assume that someone knows exactly what to do and exactly what the best practices are so i want you to make sure that you're telling them that they are in a quiet space i literally have had a guest who was running a footbath in the kitchen while his wife was cooking and i had to tell him i can hear everything can you please go into another room where it's quiet so yes crazy things will happen if they are in a situation where they just cannot get super super quiet maybe they live in new york and so there's always sirens going off advise them that a closet might actually be the best place for them to record if they live in new york and they have a closet that they can fit into and record kudos to them because they're obviously making a ton of money but you want to really outline that for them quiet space closets best avoid rooms that have a lot of hard surfaces and this includes floors windows and decor so if they're in a room that has a lot of mirrors just because that's how they like to decorate all of that is going to bounce sound around or if they're in a room with an entire glass wall of windows that's going to sound terrible next make sure that you inform them whether or not is audio only or if they need to be ready to be videoed almost every single podcast that i have ever been a guest on never ever ever specifies this and so i always have to follow up because i work from home okay like i'm normally in pajamas with messy hair and leftover makeup on from the day before so if i need to be camera ready i need to know that well in advance so please don't put your guests in that same situation where they have to follow up with you and find out how ready they really have to be and then also make sure that you were telling them what they absolutely must wear headphones so that when the time comes or interview is not going to be ruined or have to be scrapped because there's a terrible echo that just makes it absolutely unlistenable so next i want you to do your prep work that's all prep work for your guests your prep work is to learn at least the basics of what they do so a lot of people will say like you need to read all their books and watch all their podcasts and reason spend hours and hours and hours doing research and that's not necessarily the case i don't even do that with my own show i like to come into it with kind of fresh eyes but i don't want to be completely ignorant of everything that they're doing and make it seem like i didn't care enough to learn even the basics about them so i want you to go onto their website and find out what they do is there a particular term they refer to themselves as or a particular title they've given themselves learn about their major products or major offerings because those are probably going to be the things they're going to want to promote on your show most people don't do a podcast interview just because they think it's fun or just for the heck of it they do it usually because they're trying to promote something whether it's a product a book a service themselves if they want more speaking engagements or to establish themselves as an expert they want to get something out of it usually so make sure that you find out what that is in advance so that you can help them do that in an organic way in the show so that they don't have to come off sounding so salesy by doing this little bit of research ahead of time you'll also maybe have some unique stories or an anecdote or something that they have shared on their about page or somewhere on their website or social media account you can take these little unique stories or these anecdotes and the things that are on their website their social media and create a couple of backup questions so these will be your best friend if you are on this call with a guest and maybe it's kind of like pulling teeth to get information out of them they're giving you fairly short answers we want to make sure that we're asking open ended questions but you have these backup questions ready to go just in case you need them for example with my original podcast i interview people who travel full time so i would go onto their website and look at their travels or figure out where they've been and if they went to a particularly unique place or they had some you know one little line in their about page about how they were almost robbed in whatever country i'm going to jot that down and make a note of that that way i can bring it up during the interview because one it makes me look like i did my research and two it gives me something to fall back on if we have hit kind of an awkward spot in the situation so now that we're actually on the call you're there you're getting ready to do the interview the most important thing you can do right up front is to make them feel comfortable so let them know when you start recording a lot of times i've done podcast interviews and they just kind of dive right into it and i'm like wait did we start already like is this gonna be recorded as it's used later and it's not that i'm gonna like necessarily say different things or act differently but it's just a little bit jarring and confusing when you're not really sure what's happening so let them know that you will tell them when you start recording or if you're using a program that automatically starts recording as soon as the call begins tell them that say hey we're already recording but this right now is just a little pre interview chat so no need to worry i'll let you know when we officially get started and you will find that that really relaxes people allow about five to 10 minutes for this pre interview tip to help them further relax decompress a lot of people even if they do podcast interviews all the time can still get nervous or feel anxious when they go on to one of these calls i have interviewed probably in the range of like 75 to 80 people now over the course of the past three years for my own podcast so not even including being the guest and i still get anxious at the beginning of every single call so i can only imagine what that person is going through when they know that i'm going to be grilling them and asking them questions during this part you want to also make sure that you're pronouncing their name correctly and then you want to tell them whether or not they're allowed to use explicit language for the most part on this show in these solo episodes i don't use explicit language just because it's not usually called for but you may have noticed in the interviews and especially if i'm a guest on some other shows i can drop f bombs left and right i can cast like nobody's business so this is always one of the questions i had to ask every time i get on a show because almost no podcast or tells me this so make sure that they know right up front what the expectations are hey i don't care about explicit language let it fly you don't have to send to yourself or we do try to keep this clean so if you don't mind not using explicit language i would really appreciate it and then they can choose to go with that now if they are someone who uses explicit language that may be a little bit uncomfortable for them because they're trying to censor themselves in the moment so if that happens and you do edit your show you can tell them hey we can remove that later or we can bleep it it's okay just set those expectations at the beginning along these lines if you do at at your show tell them that that will make them feel so much better tell them don't worry i completely edit the show so if you need to stop and take a drink if you need to stop and gather your thoughts for a few seconds if you stumble over your words and you want to re say something totally okay i can clean all that up later that really relieves a lot of the pressure for them they know that they don't have to say everything perfectly all the time they can make a couple of mistakes and it's going to get cleaned up later now do not tell them this if it's not true so there is a huge difference in saying you edit your show and all you do is maybe remove some of the background noise and change the volume and then piece it together and actually doing true editing later on so if you're not going to remove them taking a drink or shorten that pause where they gather their thoughts or remove that stumble so that it sounds like a coherent thought where they didn't mess up if you're not going to do those things don't tell them that you are because if they repeat what they say if they gather their thoughts if they take a drink and that all gets left in they're likely going to be very upset with you because it's going to make them seem like they don't know what they're talking about or like they're unprofessional so therefore one not going to share that show for two they're probably going to tell people not to go on your show and for three they're going to be very upset with you now once you dive into the actual interview itself start with some softball questions in the beginning so ease into it don't just give their bio and say okay now tell me everything that's a very overwhelming thing so in my own show you may notice that i started out doing their bio and then i just say why don't you tell me about your podcast how did it get started how long has it been going for and so that just kind of eases into it because they know their story they know how long their products has been going if you are talking to somebody who is an entrepreneur you could say you know why don't you just tell me a little bit about what your business is currently and what you do for people and those are questions that they get asked all the time it's a nice little icebreaker and it helps them ease into the conversation then you can start diving into specifics or deeper questions but make sure as i said earlier these are open ended questions have an actual conversation with this person don't just say well when did you start your business 9095 that's it that's all the answer that's not compelling content but you could say what was your life like during the period of time that you started your business that led you to create this thing that's a little bit open ended and that you can probably find out well i was going through a divorce or oh gosh my job laid everybody off and i was really struggling and i had to figure out something so that really leads people to open up on the flip side while they're speaking be an active listener i know that that is very obvious but unfortunately it's not always practice and sometimes i'm not even the best at this still three years later i can sometimes find my mind wandering if a guest isn't super compelling to listen to luckily i've loved just about all the guests that i've had on the show recently so that's not really been an issue but i have absolutely had that happen with my first podcast when i was talking to people who are traveling and maybe our personalities just didn't mesh well they weren't really a good storyteller and i found my mind wandering that's not great so we want to make sure that we prevent that from happening as much as possible. So I want you to shut everything else down in your computer, which you should be doing anyways to ensure a strong internet connection, and turn off all notifications, this includes your phone, put your phone on silent and turn it face down, or better yet, turn it completely off. Or even better, have it in a completely different room. Don't allow yourself to be distracted by incoming emails, text messages notification that you have new comments on Instagram, eliminate all of that. And then really, really, really pay attention to what they're saying. So don't spend the whole time they're answering you thinking of what your next question is going to be. Because your next question is not going to be relevant, you're going to sound disconnected, you're going to sound like you're not paying attention. And that is not great for the guest or the listener. So along these lines of actually paying attention to what they're saying, don't take notes during the call, this is an extremely common practice, and I totally get it, it saves you time, you don't have to re listen to the episode later. And you won't forget certain points that you want to make sure as mentioned in your introduction, or in the show notes, but it takes you out of the conversation, it may seem like you're paying attention, because you're literally writing down what they're saying. But guess what, while you're writing, you're not listening to what they're saying then. So yes, you caught one point or one sentence, but you missed the very next one, because you were taking notes. So I strongly recommend not doing that. And to really hit this home even harder. Think about if you were having a conversation with your best friend, think about if you sat down at a coffee shop, or if you're sitting on your couch with a glass of wine with your best friend. And then they say, Wait, before we start this conversation, let me get my notepad, I want to take some notes. I just really want to remember what we talked about today. And then while you're having a conversation, they're literally jotting down what you're talking about. That would be so weird. It's just not good for conversations. And that's exactly what interviews are. They're just conversations with another human being that so happened to be recorded. so other people can participate in that conversation, even if it can't speak back. So in line with keeping the fact that it is a conversation at the forefront of your mind, follow your curiosity, like it's a conversation, if someone in real life is telling you a story, and they say something really interesting and just kind of gloss over it. You're you're going to be like, wait, we will wait, hold on, can we go back to this thing that you just mentioned? Because that sounded amazing. Tell me about that. That's how it would be in real life. And it should be the same on a podcast. So if they bring up something that really kind of sparks interest for you, ask them to elaborate go into that follow them down that rabbit hole of curiosity, and vice versa, if they say something that's confusing, or that you're just not quite sure you understood, ask them for more clarification. Because guess what, if you're curious about it, or you're confused by it, your listeners probably are as well. So once you wrap up the interview, and you're at the end of it, you have either stopped recording, or you've just let them know that the official interview portion is over, reassure them by telling them they did a good job. If they did, don't placate them, and then tell them what the next steps are. So if you already know the publication date, go ahead and let them know. So they can be prepared for it and add it to their calendars, they can start promoting it. If you don't know the publication date, just tell them that you'll let them know when you do. Or they'll get notification when the episode is live. And then if you send out an email with links to the show notes, and you know, quotes for social media images, whatever you include in this, make sure you let them know that as well. So this really helps them know that they're not going to have to track this information down, they can kind of forget about it, put it in the back of their mind right now. And you'll be back in touch when it's ready for them to do something with when it's ready for them to start promoting. So that's the whole interview process from start to finish. I hope that you have gained some insight here. And I hope that this helps you become more comfortable with being an interviewer. You're just having another conversation with a human being. That's it. So before I wrap up today, I do want to make a little announcement. And that is that my next solo episode will be coming out the week before my birthday. Yay. I'm an Aries April, baby. And I've decided to do for that episode, an AMA style solo show. So for those that don't know ama has asked me anything. And that's literally what I mean. So now is your chance to ask me anything you want. Be it about podcasting about starting a podcast about having my own business about any of the individual podcasts that I've had, about my personal life about my travels about my dogs, about my hobbies, I totally don't care, whatever it is that you have been wanting to know. Now's the chance to ask and I'm going to spend that solo show answering these questions. So you can send me these questions a few different ways one you can just email me Britany BR it a ny at podcasting for coaches calm or you can email them to info at podcasting for coaches calm and my VA will check that and forward it to me. You can send a contact form through my website which is just right there in the main menu super easy to find. You can find me on my Facebook page, which you can leave a comment or so. main message and then of course i am on instagram that is my preferred social media platform to connect with everyone at podcasting for coaches super easy to remember so send me your questions on any platform do not care and i will answer this for you in the next solo episode thank you so much for tuning in today and be sure that you come back next week for yet another interview with a podcaster who is successfully using a podcast for their business and that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches if you'd like to connect with me further you can do so on instagram at podcasting for coaches if you know it's time to finally get serious about starting your podcast go to podcasting for coaches calm and click on the work with me tab in the main menu to learn more about my one on one launch consultation packages or my self paced online course and i look forward to seeing the podcasts that you create and put out into the world