How to become a Guest on your Dream Podcasts

So you want to be a celebrity eh? 

Begging for Joe Rogan to ask you about all your deepest and darkest secrets?  Now-a-days, most of us listen to long form interview podcasts at least from time to time. 

Why would I want to be a guest?

If you are reading this, then I do not need to convince you as to why podcasting is a useful business development and awareness strategy. 

But here are just a couple of bullets to reaffirm to yourself that this is worth pursuing if nothing else:

• Where else do you get 30+ minutes inside the brain of a high achiever? Podcasts are one of the rare mediums that allow audiences to get to know a guest at a deep level because of the natural length of these conversations
• 45% of podcast listeners have a household income of $75,000 or more. This means podcast listeners tend to be well-educated, professionally focused individuals
• Being a guest on a podcast helps you build credibility, sharpen your speaking skills and gain exposure into large audiences all for relatively no real “cost”

Can’t I just hire someone to land me interviews?

Sure you can. There are a number of those services out there. I have hired a few of them over the years it and in my experience, it was not worth the expense.

Some of these services charge $200-$2,000 per interview and they do this for multiple clients. This means, by their very nature, they choose to partner with more general podcasts versus drilled down niche groups. 

For me selling tech sales and industry best practices, broader is not necessarily better. If I was an author however, and needed to sell a low cost product like a book, bigger is better. 

While this process is MUCH more manual, for me it afforded me the ability to pick exactly who I wanted to work with and grow my network in the process all while sharpening my outreach skills ;).

So how do you get started?

 The following framework is one I still use to this day that has gotten me on 50+ shows over the years and really helped me elevate my personal brand while honing my professional speaking skills.

#1 Set the Stage 

Let’s define why you would even be considered as a guest on a podcast.

I hate to be the one to tell you this but no one really cares all that much about your life story. What they really care about is what, specifically, from your life story can you articulate in a way that they can consume as a lesson or learning. 

This is the biggest mistake I see podcast guests make… they assume because they are a guest, that it is their time to shine and this is their own personal biopic…

 “Good question Ms. Host, well I was born….” 

Yikes. Hard eye roll. Unless you are Mark Zuckerberg, no one is very interested in the hyper specific details of your backstory. 

The key is your ability to pull out the elements of your life experience that you have codified into expert advice that others can benefit from. 

With this said you do need to prepare a few sentences that summarize your experience and qualify you. 

It is best to have this put together in written format so you can provide it to the host (more on that coming up). You also want to make sure you have this nailed down and rehearsed yourself so you can deliver it in 60-120 seconds at the beginning of an episode should you be asked.

Here is an example:

Equip Yourself:

You really do not need any special equipment to be on a podcast and definitely nothing super fancy.

 But if would would like to upgrade your setup to look and sound better, here is my list of equipment:

• Microphone $50 on Amazon. You can go much crazier with a fancy mic from Shure if you are feelin' it
• Camera $650 - this gets used as my video feed for sharper, cleaner picture
• Cam Link $110 - this is the nifty connector thingy that makes your camera direct feed into your computer 
• SoftBox Light - the light in my current office blows so this helps keep my pasty Irish complexion dialed in 

Other notable things:

1. Make sure you always turn off all notifications
2. Make sure you are in a quiet, undisturbed place
3. Mute yourself whenever you are not speaking if and where possible
4. If you don’t use a light, make sure your room is decently lit. If you have a window, make sure the window is in front or on the side of you and NOT behind you

#2 Define your Subject Matter Expertise (SME)

Since we have established that no one is tuning in to hear about your life story, we can all agreed that the listener is there to LEARN. The best teachers are those who have really defined, practical and tactical advice that is easy to implement. 

You likely do not have a huge personal brand so one of the best ways to carve out one is to pick something very specific that you can go DEEP on. 

For example, I talk about Sales. Sales is a gigantic industry with a million nuances.. Sticking to this really broad topic will likely make me share boring, bland and standard advice. No host or listener is interested in hearing about obvious things that they already know about. 

Hosts & listeners want unique, specific and if possible, novel information. 

Some prompts for finding your Subject Matter Expertise:

• What interesting perspective can you share? 
• What common topic do you have a contrarian view on?
• What unique experiences do you have that would make for an uncommon or interesting story?
• What are things you believe that others find fascinating or just plain seem to miss?
• What do colleagues, co-workers and friends come to you with questions about?
• Within your industry, what is your drilled down expertise if you had to hone in?

My SME for Example:

These are the unique topics that I speak about within the sales industry:

• Why video is a game changer in sale and how to do it right
• How content creation should be a sales motion as much as it is a marketing one
• Why domain expertise is far more important than sales acumen
• Why your network is your biggest asset as a seller
• How to be a top performer WITHOUT ever making a cold call

#3 Define your Ideal Listener Profile

Now that you know WHAT your superpower expertise is, you need to find WHICH podcasts would make sense for you to reach out to. 

First step would be to define your ILP: Ideal Listener Profile. It usually helps to write this out in demographics:

• What countries/regions do they live and operate in?
• What are their general ages?
• What are their job titles?
• What topics are they researching?
• What influencers and brands do they follow?

You want to keep this list narrowly focused so you can find shows that cater to these niche groups.

Especially when you are just starting out, you want to build up a portfolio of a few episodes so it is best to start with the lower tier shows to get a feel for being a guest. From there you can progress to higher tier shows. 

In my opinion, I would rather be on a hyper targeted show with 1,000 of my ILP versus a broad show with 100,000 listener audience. I am looking for awareness within a small community because I sell an enterprise product… if you sell something more b2C or mainstream, maybe bigger is better for you. 

Just know that those broad shows… you know the ones that say their audience is “business owners”-  they tend to have low engagement and intent. Quality over quantity here in my humble opinion but that is up to you of course. 

#4 Craft your Dream 100 Podcast List

Now that you know who you want to reach, we need to find shows that your ILP listens to. 

Search communities:

Search slack, FB & LinkedIn groups for the word podcasts and start compiling lists of the shows mentioned

Ask:

Assuming you have customers or colleagues in this demographic, ask them what they listen to. Who they turn to for advice.. How they get educated in their world. 

Search Podcast Directories 

As you start finding shows that meet your criteria, throw them in a list, a spreadsheet or any area where you can organize and track things. Keep it simple, you just need an area to list out these shows, the contact you want to target, any notes and any engagements you have. 

Example:

#5 Create your Media Kit

One of the keys to selling is to be easy to do business with. Good sellers are prepared, they anticipate buyer needs and have resources available proactively BEFORE the buyer even needs to ask.

The same is true in being a good guest for your host. When you are reaching out to these guests cold, you want to be prepared with resources that make you an easy “Yes”.

You want to create a packet that you can send to make their life easier and show that you have thought this before. I put mine in a Google drive link that has 2 documents and a file:

• (1) Document outline of my background and episode outline ideas
• (1) Document file highlighting and linking to other shows I have been on
• (1) file of my Headshots

Headshots:

Every podcast editing team will want your headshot(s) so they can add those into the marketing assets they release when the episode is live. Don’t be that chump who never sends them the headshots and makes the editor awkwardly screenshot your LinkedIn profile pic. 

Upload them on a site or drive and share them in this packet. Make sure the photos are high resolution so it makes editing and uploading a breeze. 

Background Bio:

Have 3-6 sentences prepared on a document describing your background, your role and your expertise. This is something your host will ask for and having it upfront makes it easy for them to read off when introducing you. Make it flow like a story, here is where I started, here is what I learned, here is why that is relevant and makes me qualified to share these insights.

Example of mine:

Notice how these links and resources give the host all the information their team would need to work with you?

 BE EASY TO DO BUSINESS WITH.

Episode Outline:

Speaking as someone who has hosted several podcasts, one of the most challenging things is to figure out the topics for an episode and making it an engaging conversation.

Instead of telling the host all about how great you are, show them with a detailed outline of what an episode would look like. 

Create a doc of some kind, something easy to share with as a link or attachment.

Here is my framework and what I like to include:

Example of my Episode Outline

Example Titles:

Believe it or not, a podcast’s episode title is a major part of engagement and hooking in an audience. Write down some thought-provoking and engaging example episode titles for your host. These are merely suggestions but again it is focusing on taking work off the host’s plate and making you an easy “yes”.

“Nuggets”:

These are 1 sentence teasers that you could cover in an interview and are great prompts for the host. I usually center these around stories from my experiences, contrarian opinions, thought-provoking timely topics that are relevant today. 

Interview Questions:

This might sound unnatural at first but this is actually a massive secret weapon for guests. Even a seasoned podcast host is constantly focused on what questions they are going to ask and how they are going to maintain a cohesive and engaging conversation. 

By taking the time to layout some sample questions for the host, you are doing the homework for them and making their job A LOT easier. A key here is to realize that these are merely suggestions. 

You are highlighting questions that stimulate engaging conversations on topics that you know you can elaborate on with ease. 

Sample answers:

Give short answers sneak previews of each of the questions. This will give the host a little insight into your speaking voice, how you tell stories and show that you are prepared. It is also a great way for you to gather your thoughts and enter into a conversation with good content to pull from.

Links & Resources

If you have other content like blog articles, posts or videos, link and reference them in the outline so that the host can explore your other content. Remember the goal of this doc is two-fold: 1. Provide credibility about you 2. Make the host’s life easier 

#6 Outreach to your Dream Podcasts

Now that you have figured out which shows you want to reach out to and you have a media kit to send them, you can begin reaching out to these show hosts to see if they will be interested.

What has worked best for me is creating a 60-90 second personalized video message and sending it to each host. 

1 . Find their contact information.

You need to find the email address of the podcast host or their team so you can send them an email. 

Use a lead scraping tool to pull emails off social profiles and websites. If you do not have one of these tools all of the following have free trials you can take advantage of:

• Seamless.ai
• Lusha
• Apollo.io

When you are on those podcast directories or other locations, navigate to the podcast website or profile page. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a contact email address right on the ‘Contact Us” page. 

If not, try searching on LinkedIn or other social media sites. Then use one of the scraping tools mentioned above to locate their email. 

The Pitch

The amazing thing about video is it has the ability to showcase exactly what you would be like as a guest in this little snapshot experience for the host. Think about it.. How can a host really make a judgment call about a guest just by reading a text email about a video/audio medium?

Video is the perfect way to give your host a sneak peak into your professionalism, your tonality and comfortability on screen. This has worked wonders for me. 

Here are the keys:

• Keep it short and sweet 60-90 seconds
• Give them something intriguing.. Reference your outline for them to check out
• Make it personalized. Tell them why you wanted to specifically be on their show and what stood out about them and their publication

Example Pitch:

Now you can send them directly to the hosts in a message in a podcast matching app like Podmatch etc. Or send it to them directly in an email to the host. 

You also want to be sure to include the media kit link/attachment in the message so they can see you back up what you preach. 

Rinse and Repeat

Since you already have your list of Dream shows, you just need to rinse and repeat this outreach as much as you would like. 

Would love to hear if this was helpful in you landing any interview, drop me a comment or DM!