How to Prepare as a Guest on a Podcast
Many marketers will get invited to be a guest on a podcast. About six weeks ago, I was honored to be interviewed on Flowing East and West: The Perfectly Imperfect Journey. You can also find the interview here on Apple Podcasts.
Anne Robie and Sherry Essig are compassionate, empathic, and sage interviewers who made this conversational enjoyable. Anne and I worked together at Nomacorc, and I have mentioned her in my blog as she was always a fount of wisdom. Since I am a regular listener to their interviews, I was excited to be asked to participate.
I even got emotional during the call, speaking about some of my beloved family members who were crucial to my journey. But hey, that’s me.
How To Prepare?
If you are going to be a guest on the podcast, I think you should take the time to listen to at least one episode and think about the audience. This recent interview was a podcast about my life’s journey – not focused on my marketing career. I didn’t need to prepare to talk about my history, but I knew I wanted to be like a thread to a needle, so the narrative held together.
I was mindful not to spend too much time discussing my marketing work, but with the audience in mind, discussing what was relevant to Anne and Sherry’s audience, which is all about the perfectly imperfect journey.
The following short list of things to do before you hop on a podcast.
What is the key message you want to communicate? It helps to think about what you want to share with this audience. If you can come up with a phrase or critical sentence, have it in front of you so you can make sure to mention it briefly during the interview. In this interview, I focused on how I have always been someone who “notices things” – a keen observer.
Stay conversational. Don’t preach or teach. Try to be yourself as if you were having coffee with a friend and telling a story. Avoid being prescriptive about how others should be –describe how you dealt with an event or experience.
Don’t forget to stop talking. Pausing so the hosts can jump in is essential and often hard to do when you are in the flow. You want to allow the hosts to ask follow-up questions on themes and ideas most pertinent to their audience. Communication involves sending and receiving messages, so know when to be quiet.
Remember the audience. Listeners will often be people you don’t know. Don’t speak so profoundly that the story or narrative gets lost. Make sure you can skip around gracefully without getting lost in minutiae. Most podcast interviews aren’t that long.
Be genuine. Don’t pretend. This isn’t Instagram, where many will show a slightly better version of ourselves. Be honest – and frank. And don’t be afraid of letting your emotions come to the foreground. People like to hear humans – not inflated resumes.
Of course, my Internet went down when it was time for the call, and I had to be on my phone for the interview. I went with the flow – keeping with the theme of the podcast. And since Anne and I worked together and Sherry and I had talked, I felt this didn’t need to be performative – but casual, heartfelt, and friendly.
Anne and Sherry’s podcasts are a joy to listen to and are one of the favorites I look forward to hearing.
If you get a chance, check out Flowing East and West: The Perfectly Imperfect Journey. And if you are curious about me – here is some helpful context about my life’s journey.
Thanks for listening.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
