Podcaster John Lee Dumas shares qualitative research on why podcast hosts were disappointed with guest. Here’s a list of sample answers:
- “Answers are too broad. Not actionable.”
- “Bad audio, poor communication skills.”
- “Booking is the biggest headache. Some ignore the scheduler link and try to go back and forth in email.”
- “Boring or not willing to be vulnerable.”
- “Don’t know how to use recording technology.”
- “Don’t promote their episodes. At all.”
- “I hate canned presentations - like they’re delivering a rehearsed talk instead of being in a conversation.”
The vast majority of disconnect between audiences and guests is a lack of alignment - answers that weren’t authentic or engaging. That’s why successfully guesting on other people’s podcasts requires alignment between your story and the host’s audience.
Provide Value
Five ways that an expert can offer value by being on a podcast:
- Share their expertise: The expert can share their knowledge, experience, and insights on a specific topic, providing valuable information to the audience.
- Offer unique perspectives: The expert can offer a unique perspective on a topic that the audience may not have heard before, helping them to see things in a new way.
- Engage in conversation: The expert can engage in a conversation with the podcast host, bringing up new ideas and insights that may not have been discussed before.
- Provide actionable advice: The expert can provide actionable advice that the audience can use in their own lives or businesses, helping them to achieve their goals.
- Build credibility and authority: By appearing on a podcast, the expert can build their credibility and authority in their field, establishing themselves as a thought leader and expert in their industry.
Start with the story
A business without a story is powerless. learn how to harness the power of storytelling, and get access to a great free resource. Click Play!
“The best product doesn’t win. The product with the best story wins.”
“Narrative is how we learn. More importantly, it’s how we’re convinced. Stories take a lesson, person, or product past the gates of our conscious decision making and into the most impressionable parts of our minds.”
Develop your key talking points.
Your Key Talking Points are 6 to 12 short paragraphs, in a bullet point format, about what you can talk about and what you can share with the audience. This shouldn't read like your LinkedIn profile, but rather an understanding of what the challenges and big changes your audience is facing today and how you've discovered a solution for their problems.
If you get stuck writing out your key talking points, write the outline and then take your work to Chat GPT. Ask the bot to rewrite it, make it shorter, make it longer.
You can even ask Chat GPT to rewrite your talking points in a more formal voice, to sound like Tony Stark from the Avengers or with humor...
It's not cheating, it's simply doing the heavy lifting. What matters is when you share those talking points with the podcast host and create that meaningful conversation together.
Whenever we take on a new client at Podcast Guesting Pro, our first meeting is the "media profiling session". This meeting is an opportunity to learn about the guest, their target audience and help craft their key talking points.
Remember, there are always 3 people in every good podcast conversation - the host, the guest and the listener.
The best conversations will leave all 3 feeling like they are sitting around a table over coffee, or a beer, and sharing conversations that matter to them all.
Many podcast hosts and guests, however, forget this fact - and go into podcasts thinking only of what they want to talk about. But no radio show would ever survive without creating these conversations with their target audience in mind.
So when you start podcast guesting, speak with your audience in mind. The first step in developing your key talking points - is starting with the individual - "you!" - that's the audience, the listener. Rather than connect with a group, or a crowd, connect with that one person.
Learn from the best of radio. A good radio host never talks to - "you guys" - or - "the listeners out there" - but speaks to one individual directly. She knows her name; her job title; and what she's worried about right now.