What are the two crucial elements of a successful podcast (or any type of interview)?
- When you’re invited to be a guest on a podcast, it’s important to prepare not only yourself, but also your host, ahead of time.
- And it’s always a pleasure to be interviewed by a pro who knows what she’s doing and how to promote the result across a wide variety of venues.
So how do you prepare both yourself and your host ahead of time? First and foremost, don’t expect the host to research what you do and what you have to offer people.
Take the responsibility for providing the information necessary so that the host can enable you to show your best self to the audience.
- A copy of your introduction that showcases your expertise so that the audience is excited to hear you speak (and so that you don’t have to sound like a narcissist bragging about yourself and your credentials)
- A list of questions that elicit the information it’s essential for you to share, including the challenges you help people overcome
So what does the host need to do?
- Promote the event ahead of time and provide swipe copy and graphics that allow you to do the same
- Read your introduction and questions ahead of time in order to do a credible job of conducting a good interview/conversation with you
- Promote the resulting program across as many platforms as possible
I invite you to take a gander at the podcast in this blog post, hosted by my friend and colleague, Kathi Burns, for an example to see how this works when it works as it should.
Kathi Burns went far behind releasing the podcast we did together to the usual sites and to her own community.
Click this link to see the excellent page Kathi shared as part of promoting our podcast. It includes not only the video and audio of our conversation, but also the main takeaways, a tweetable quote, and the transcript. (Beware: As usual, artificial non-intelligence made its usual quotient of odd transcriptions of some of the things we said.)
While you’re visiting that page, be sure to grab a copy of Kathi’s excellent report, Organized & Energized — 6 Steps to Organize & Create Your Amazing Office Space.
Kathi is one of only 275 board certified organizers in the world. Her best-selling book, How to Master Your Muck has been featured by Oprah, Better Home and Gardens, Martha Stewart, Entrepreneur, and in many other places.
If you’ve had some interesting interview experiences, please share them in the comment section below.