How Not to F___ Up Your Next Podcast Guest Opportunity - 3 simple fixes to avoid the most common mistakes people make as podcast guests.

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This is Podfluence, the podcast to help you grow your

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influence and income with podcasts.

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My name is John Ball and my mission is to help you, the self-employed

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business coach, to grow your influence and income now so you can

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have a thriving coaching business.

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In this episode, we're gonna take a look at the common mistakes that most people

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make as podcast guests and how with just three simple fixes, you'll be head and

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shoulders above the rest of the crowd to stand out as our much better guest.

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Maybe you've had podcast interviews go badly before.

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Maybe you're worried about them going badly, or you've

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done a number of interviews and nothing much came from them.

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Now it is possible that you might not even know that you're messing up the

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podcast opportunities coming your way because these mistakes are so commonly

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made that they've become normal.

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I'm not just a podcast creator.

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I'm a consumer too.

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I love audio content.

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I listen when I'm getting ready, but I'm traveling or even at the gym if

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I should ever happen to go there.

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Sometimes I listen to shows to help me decide on a guest

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for Pod fluence or whether I'm going to pitch that show myself.

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And sometimes because people have asked me to take a listen to them for feedback.

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One thing is for sure.

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Most of the interviews I listen to contain the same mistakes again and

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again as a podcast guest, you don't get to see audience drop off rates, and most

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podcasters don't even check that either.

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But imagine being all excited about getting yourself on a big name

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podcast, and the audience is looking for another episode to listen to

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before your first two minutes are.

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It happens more than you will ever know, and by the end of this episode, you

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are going to know exactly what to do to be able to avoid the three biggest

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mistakes that most podcast guests make.

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First things first, though.

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If you are not already following the show, there's a pretty good chance you

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can remedy that right now, especially if you already have your device in your hand.

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It's pretty simple.

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If you are listening on Apple Podcast, you will see the plus sign at the

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top of the screen next to the show.

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And if you're on Spotify, you will see the follow button.

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If you're on either of those, that's the button to press for weekly episodes

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and interviews to help you build your influence and income from podcasts.

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And if that's not enough Podfluence for you, you can subscribe to my weekly

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newsletter on LinkedIn and beehive and you'll find the links in the show notes.

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But right now, let's get started with this week's episode.

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Being invited to be an expert guest on someone else's podcast is quite a

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privilege and a potential opportunity too.

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Maybe they asked you, maybe you asked them, or the stars just aligned, but

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most of your podcast appearances have the potential to generate new business

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for you if you play your cards right.

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The thing is most people are effing it up and they don't even know it.

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So how do you know if Podcast guesting is working as a marketing strategy or not?

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You can measure your results as you would any marketing campaign by the

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amount of opportunity being generated, however, Unlike most ad campaigns, the

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results can keep coming on and on an ongoing basis, and sometimes an initial

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lack of results does not necessarily mean there will be no results at all.

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That said, if you are being strategic with your appearances and getting on shows

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with bigger audiences that contain your client avatar and you're still not seeing

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more immediate results, There's a good chance that you are not making the most

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of the opportunity and connecting with that audience in a way that would inspire

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them to want to know more about you.

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If you're not getting results, then you are ultimately wasting your time,

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the host time, and the audience's time too, although they probably won't be

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sticking around more than a few minutes.

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. Now, I've admitted this before, but

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just felt unable to publish for various reasons, and we're going to address those.

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But I'll be painting with a somewhat wide brush as we do.

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Before we get to them, there's something you need to understand

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about outcome-based podcasting that many podcasters just don't get.

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The show needs to be both entertaining and educational.

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Now, on some level, we all know this.

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If we go to the theater and the show is boring, we might stay until the end.

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And that's a mix of sunk cost fallacy, you've already paid your money and

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you've made the effort to be there, maybe arranged a babysitter or

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you've traveled into the city.

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Especially along with that, you probably don't want to appear churlish by walking

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out because most people don't go to the theater by themselves, I guess.

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Now those things won't save you on a podcast episode.

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There's no sunk cost and the audience owe you nothing.

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You have everything to prove, which means you need to offer

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a strong value proposition and then you need to deliver on it.

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That's the context what everything that's about to follow.

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I was disappointed to find out some years back that the term edutainment

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had already been coined and that I had not been the first to come

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up with this handy portmanteau.

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Nonfiction outcome-based podcasts need to deliver edutainment the whole time.

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Whether it's five minutes, 15 minutes, or 60.

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Forgetting this is fatal for your appearances.

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You don't need to become a standup comedian delivering your set, but you

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do need to turn up a few of the dials.

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So let's get into the three things that will help you become a more

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compelling, unmissable podcast guest.

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First is be present.

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Even the most painfully introverted people like to talk about themselves.

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Although some may take a little more coaxing than others.

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Most podcasters start their interviews with some variation of, tell us about.

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Let's not get into the right or wrong of that other than to know you

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are likely to encounter it a lot, responding to that question with your

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life history or professional history,

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however potted, is likely to get the audience searching for something else

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to listen to, or at least debating the value of continuing to listen.

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It's like an unintentional trap set by the majority of podcast interviewers.

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If the audience don't know who you are, they don't care about your history.

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If they do know who you are, they probably already know it.

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Help your podcast host out by giving your elevator pitch rather

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than a long-winded back history.

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All your audience needs to know is who you are and how you can help them.

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Beyond that, maybe see if you can come up with an interesting and ideally

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illustrative story that is as short as you can make it, and different to the majority

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of answers that they will ever receive.

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And bonus points if that story is also funny as long as

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that's appropriate to the show.

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Stay aware of the host and give them opportunities to interject.

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which brings us to number two, pause for punctuation.

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Even professional speakers and comedians can struggle with this one.

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People worry way too much about dead air and leaving gaps, and most podcasts are

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edited and those that aren't should be.

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Gaps and pauses are likely to be shortened for you if they're too long.

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The benefits of pausing are threefold.

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It's gonna give you time to consider your reply rather than

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just having to keep speaking on the fly and fill recording time.

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It provides an opportunity for the host to steer the conversation

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and it adds gravitas to what you say , because pausing is a habit

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that tends to indicate confidence.

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Do you see what I did there?

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Less really is more.

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The more six things you can be in your communication, the more

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impact you'll probably have.

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Now, as with anything taken to extremes, this will have the opposite effect.

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One word or super short interview answers suggests that you don't

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have much to say and that you don't really want to be there.

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It can be interpreted as unfriendly and somewhat passive aggressive.

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And if that's the case, why are you even there?

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The ability to be able to nutshell things makes them memorable

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and brings us to number three.

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Prepare yourself, and this is the one that most people just don't do.

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I'm sure most of us don't have the time to do anything like the amount of

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preparation we would prefer to for every single podcast interview, and that's okay.

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You don't need to hire a research team, but you should be considering

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giving some time to your research.

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I've gone on shows that I never should have gone on simply because I didn't

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take the time to do any research at all.

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And it's the kind of mistake, like a bad drunken tweet made at college years ago

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that might one day come back and bite you.

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There are so many things you could prepare yourself with, but here

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are three key things that really don't take much time at all.

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Firstly, prepare your energy by getting yourself into a good energetic state.

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So music, movement, some personal declarations.

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That's my own preferred method.

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You can choose yours.

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Secondly, if you haven't already listened to the show, Look it up.

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Check out a few episodes, skim through them, and take a look at

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episode titles and show descriptions to get an idea of what you're doing.

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Thirdly, have a framework that you can share that makes it easy for the

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listener to get what you're talking about and how you can help them.

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And it doesn't need to be complicated.

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In fact, it's better if it's not.

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There's a framework in this episode, which I'll recap in just a.

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Now this framework is the three Ps, present, pause and prepare, and

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alliteration is great when you can use it with something like this because

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it helps make it easier to remember.

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And if you can remember the three Ps you can probably remember most,

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if not all, of what they stand for.

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Don't force alliteration.

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Rhyming can work great too or a good acronym, and if you can't

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rhyme or alliterate your framework, three key points will do just fine.

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Now, of course we could get into the power of three in language and rhetoric,

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but if that's your jam and that's interesting to you, then go and take

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a listen to episode 66 of Podfluence with my guest, Simon Lancaster.

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Next week my guest is gonna be Simone Sauter, and Simone is an

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expert at helping coaches get interviews in magazines and podcasts.

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Oh, you are not gonna want to miss that.

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Simone is also a fantastic person.

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I had a lot of fun chatting to her.

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You're gonna get some really good stuff, so don't miss my next episode.

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Make sure you're subscribed to the show.

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and if you want to get even more Podfluence, join me and hundreds

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of others for the Podfluence Weekly newsletter so you can get additional

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insights and articles on growing your coaching business for the long term.

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All you have to do is join me on LinkedIn or beehive from

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the link in the show notes.

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That's it for this week's episode.

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I look forward to seeing you next time.

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Wherever you're going, whatever you're doing, have an amazing rest of your day.