5 Tips To Host The Best Podcast Interview Possible
Interviewing is, for most, the biggest and most important part of having your own podcast.
A good interview can go a long way in building your audience, personal growth, and making powerful connections.
And often, we find podcasters don’t have a process or system when it comes to their interviews.
This process is important because it allows you to have smooth, impactful conversations.
Below are some of the top tips we have for folks who want to have better interviews:
1. Do your research before reaching out.
So many podcasters reach out to potential guests based on Instagram following, or cool adventures they’ve done.
We’ve been there and done the same.
But if you want to have great conversations, you need to do your research to see if they are actually a good fit for your show.
Doing cool things alone will not make a great interview.
What makes them unique? Have they been interviewed before or will this be their first time?
If they haven’t been interviewed before, this doesn’t mean they won’t be good on your show. It just gives you a little more data to go with when thinking about preparing for outreach and the potential interview.
For example, you may want to do more prep with them in advance to make them feel comfortable, or simply ask them, “What would make this a home-run interview for you?”
ACTION TIP: Identify someone you’d love to have on your show. Now, go to Spotify, type their name in, and see what pops up.
2. Communicate all expectations up-front.
You must communicate from the very beginning what you expect of your potential guest.
What will you need from them in this process? What do you hope this interview yields?
We often will express how much time you’d expect from them for both the pre-interview and the actual interview.
We like to let them know that we expect them to share on socials after their episode is live.
We ask them for promotional assets up-front.
Doing all of this from the jump does two things:
Establishes you as a professional.
Clears up any questions they may have before you’re about to release the episode and it is too late.
ACTION TIP: Create a form (Google Forms is free!) that you can send to guests before your scheduled interview and that includes expectations, a way for them to share their assets, and how they can spread the word when the episode is live.
3. Have a pre-interview conversation.
Podcasters are strapped for time and this seems like an extra step that will take away from all the million other things you have to do.
But we think it is necessary for a good interview.
There are a few reasons for this, but the main one is that you are able to establish rapport with the person before you hit the record button.
We’ve all listened to an episode where you can tell the people have no familiarity with each other and it takes 20 minutes to get into the actual conversation.
If your podcast is about a more in-depth, intense topic, then we highly suggest you have these conversations.
It allows the person to feel comfortable with you in advance so that they can feel more comfortable sharing deep truths on the actual interview.
Making your guest feel comfortable, no matter what the subject matter is, should be your number one priority.
ACTION TIP: Create an outline for everything you’ll share during your pre-interview call so that you can follow an agenda as you go.
4. Prepare well in advance.
You should be fully ready for your upcoming interviews at least 48 hours in advance.
For some, this means building a full list of questions based on your pre-interview conversation and research.
For some, this may just be a list of notes. Either way, get prepared in advance.
Rushing last minute into an interview without being prepared can certainly be heard by the audience.
We also send those questions or notes to the guest at least 24 hours in advance to make sure if there is anything they don’t want to discuss, we can remove that from our prep.
This also allows us to confirm the time with the guest, as we know interview reschedules happen.
ACTION TIP: Draft an outline for your next episode, if you haven’t! Many podcasters skip this step.
5. Eliminate all distractions.
And finally, for the actual interview, minimize all distractions.
Close out of all tabs, shut off all notifications, put your dog in another room.
While we’re all human and we all have a lot of different responsibilities, generally, an interview will be 1 - 2 hours and unless we are literally saving lives or curing cancer, we can shut off our other priorities for that amount of time and the world will not stop.
ACTION TIP: Create a Do Not Disturb mode on your phone for podcast recording time.
Like any process, you have to make it work for you.
Based on your time constraints, what can you implement today within your interviewing process to create better interviews and thus, better relationships both with your guests and listeners?
You got this, take it one step at a time. And if you need support from people who have been in your shoes…
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