Last time, we discussed acoustics, sound quality and podcast hosting. Today, let’s look at how to get guests for your podcasts.
This all depends on what type of podcast you have. If your podcast is performer-centric, agents, managers, and PR people can be a big help. If you’re interviewing executives like I often do, be ready to make a lot of direct contacts. Since we’ve already done well over 200 episodes of Adult Site Broker Talk, we get a lot of referrals to be on our podcast. Our guests enjoy the experience, get benefit from the exposure, and tell their friends. We’re also very proactive about requesting referrals from past guests. This has gotten us some of our best people to interview. We watch adult news sites for stories about new sites and platforms and announcements from other companies. This gives us interesting subject matter and guests who are motivated to come on and talk about what they’re promoting. And anything new is interesting for the audience. So, it’s a win-win.
But your podcast is only as good as the guests you have. We podcast weekly, which is the best way to go. We attempt to always be three months ahead with guest interviews in the can. That way, we’ll never come up to a podcast and wonder who we’ll be interviewing. I strongly suggest that all new podcasters think ahead and bank many interviews in advance. It avoids a lot of stress.
Our M.O. is to ask the guests what they want to talk about. That way, they’re comfortable with the subject matter, and their agenda gets addressed. You certainly don’t have to do that, but if you aren’t ready, take the time to do some major homework to ensure you’re asking your guests relevant questions. And they may not be the topics your guests want to discuss.
Another trick I’ve learned is to interview other podcasters. They tend to be the best guests and have a loyal following to which they will promote your podcast. There are many reciprocal interviews between podcasters, and I always enjoy and benefit from being interviewed, too.
Along with that, have a script of some kind for the interview. I ask my guests ahead of scheduling the interview for a headshot for the hosting page, a bio on them and a company if there’s one involved and a list of questions. Then, I put this into a nice script so I have a format to follow during the interview.
That’s not to say you can’t veer away from the script during the interview. I suggest you do. The best interviewers are great listeners. After years of interviewing professional athletes as a sports reporter, I found that out. Always listen to what your guest says and be ready for a follow-up question. Don’t just ignore the guest and stay with the script. Have the ability to ad-lib. You’ll get better and better with this as time goes on.
Summing everything up, a podcast is like any business. You need to have a business plan and you need to invest both time and money into it. Otherwise, it won’t succeed. And there is a lot of work, as hopefully, this series of articles pointed out. If you don’t want to put in the work or don’t have the time, then podcasting probably isn’t for you.
But the rewards are great. A successful podcast can do a lot for anyone’s profile, and I’m not only glad I did it, but I may replicate it with another podcast sometime soon.
If anyone who’s been reading these articles has any questions about podcasting, I’d be more than happy to help. Contact Us on our website.
