How to Get Me To Do Your Podcast — And Probably Other Busy People, Too

So I get a lot of podcast requests, and I think podcasts are great.  They are an incredible way to communicate with your customers and prospects.  Even if the absolute number of listeners and viewers is low, the quality is often high.

Yet, folks tend to do the ask … wrong.

Let me tell you what folks do wrong (and folks like Harry Stebbings never do):

• Don’t drop me on an EA to schedule.  Harry doesn’t do it, I don’t do it.  It always ends up being a headache and a hassle.  The EA can do the links, the Zoom, etc. but don’t make it hard on the guest.  Make it seem like you’ll make almost any time work.  Usually the EA is pretty mediocre and often drops the ball.  I basically give up in a headache of un-schedulable-ness.  Instead, just ask what works best for them, and give a few ideal times.
• Don’t ask me to rehearse or do a prep call.  I don’t have time.  Harry doesn’t ask you to rehearse, either.
• Don’t ask me to send over a headshot and a bio. Don’t you have Google?  This is a sign to me it’s all going to be a hassle.

What you should do:

• Make it easy as humanly possible to schedule.  This ends up being headache #1.
• Send a great email asking the guest to do it — and why it will help people.  Most guests don’t really want PR per se but they do want to help and reach certain audiences.
• Send a great doc with all the questions over ahead of time.  This is the real prep.  Let the guest read it and scan it ahead of time, as much as they want.
• Send over clips and video and audio right after.  So if the guest wants, they can do whatever they want with it.
• If all your other guests are “the same old speakers”, highlight why what you are doing is different.  No one wants to be on a podcast full of the same old self-promoters.

I know this all sounds obvious and minor, but I’d say 90% of folks do this wrong when getting a podcast off the ground.