Guess. Where should I find a guess for my podcast? Should I pay to be a guest? Or what
should I do to avoid becoming the world's number one podcast douche canoe? Etiquette!
Yay! All that and more. Let's start a podcast. I'm Elijah. Roll the intro.
Tis I, Lord Podcast. Are you yearning to equip yourself with the confidence to record?
Elijah, the skilled podcast professional is preparing himself for a tale of tools and skill
that only a mighty podcaster may employ in one's podcast journey. Elijah, I do believe that we
shall teach our weary wanderer the confidence that they strive to achieve. Shall we start a
podcast? We shall! It's settled. Let's start a podcast. So many people ask me this all the time
and in on threads and Instagram or whatever. TikTok and wherever your internet things are
Reddit. There's a fun group on a subreddit called Podcast. So you go there, you ask some questions,
you forget to Google and have some fun. Not everybody likes to search the internet. Sometimes
you just want to go for the goal to ask the questions. Here we are. Okay. So where to find a
guest? It could be anywhere on the internet, but specifically you look to your network because
that's where your people are. Right? You ask around, maybe somebody knows somebody. That's
what's going on. Maybe you know somebody directly. Padverb, that's a website. It is a guest listing.
It's pretty cool. It's not a matchmaking tool, but you can find a lot of people in their contact
information there. So to get started, sort of tool, if you will, and I'll link that in the
description. No sweat. Creator platforms like TikTok, Threads, Instagram,
you search up podcasts. They're becoming like Google. Right? A lot of people, especially
GenXers, GenXers, sorry, GenZeders, whoever they are, the young people, whatever generation they are,
I don't know. Go and search. Podcast guest, podcast, whatever your topic is, you can go in there.
Podcast guest, insert topic, or you can go to Google, search there too. Whatever you like.
You can do that. Podcast guest for this topic. You find a lot. Usually on the first page,
you're good to go. There's community platforms like subreddits that I mentioned. Discord is
kind of like Slack for geeks and nerds. It's becoming more prevalent for, you know,
derisive normal people in society, not the underground communities and the gamers,
things like that. Facebook has a ton of podcast groups. Just be careful because there's a lot
of people out there that like to join those groups just to solicit podcast listens and services,
which can be overwhelming. So select your groups accordingly. Slack groups, there's a couple of
Slack podcast groups. LinkedIn is becoming less of a business networking tool and more of a
creator tool. Check that out. I mentioned threads is becoming pretty huge for creators too, which
is cool. You can go to Twitter, I guess, but I don't love it. Maybe you do. That's your choice.
Try it. Neen author. Maybe you could check publishing announcements like a coming soon
section on Amazon and go to TED Talks. Check those out. Maybe there's some contact information
or academic forums. Those are options as well. Maybe you could ask other podcast hosts. Maybe
they know somebody. Maybe there's a podcast that's running similar to yours. Be like,
hey, I have this cool podcast. I'm trying it out. Do you have the contact information for
this guest? Do you think it'd be okay if I talk to them? Just, you know, respectfully asked.
That'd be cool. Matchmaking services, some pay some sort of, sorry, some pay as in some charge
money to be paid. Matchmaker.fm, Podmatch, Podcast Guests, those sort of websites
will probably charge a service or it's a freemium sort of thing you can get yourself into. Again,
in the podcast description, get those links and events just show up in person. Old school,
if I may, right? Podcast networking events like Meetup. Digitally, you can have the app, the Meetup
app. I remember pre-COVID, you use this to go to board games and social events and things like
that. Some podcast groups use Meetup. Podcast conventions are huge now. You don't have to do
Star Wars or video game cons or conventions. You can do it for podcasts all over the world,
not just exclusive to the United States. So it should be something in your area. It might have
to travel a bit, but it might be worth it. Or ask listeners that follow you on socials. Hey,
who'd you like to hear from? What topics are you interested in? What specific niche insert
section question here? And I mentioned professional associations in some way, but maybe like National
Farmers Association or Milk Congress or Number One Dads Forever or Women in Leadership,
those sort of professional associations, especially if you work a nine to five, you'd be able to figure
that out. Some ideas or it is word of mouth. Maybe some passcasses that you've had. Hey,
do you have any friends in this area? And maybe you know people that do a thing similar to you do.
Maybe we could kind of get a spin on X, Y or Z. Hey, what do you think? It's an idea. Mastermind
groups are a bunch of fun too. Some are on Facebook, but some like business networking,
international or entrepreneurs. There we go. Organization, stuff like that. That might be
a mastermind group of experts to talk to and gain experts from. When you're doing the prep,
people think you can just have a guest and show up. Am I right? Just show up. It'll be fun. Get as
many guests I can. Who cares if they can talk or speak or whatever. If they're not succinct and
they're not concise, they're not a great speaker, you're not going to get quality, especially if
you're not an effective communicator. Like a lot of podcasters go to develop a skill, right? That
may not be you, but it could be. And if you're not super strong as a communicator, it's difficult
to take that risk and affect the quality of your podcast episode. If it's not engaging, it's not
succinct, you're babbling a lot, you're letting the guest take over the conversation. That kind of
dismisses your authority and your ability to control the narrative and as well to get the
oath that you want to get that goal and goal, that topic that you want from the podcast. So
it's kind of important. It's really important. You want to vet them, do the research, you want to
confirm the fit. Are they good for you? Do they like something you don't like? Like is it super
political or religious or something like that? They send a lot, they get a lot of email. I don't
love that. You can be a little edgy without being complete ass, you know? You know what I mean?
And then they're scheduling, figuring out when your schedules match because you're probably in
different time zone and that's fun. You follow up, more follow up and then maybe you get declined
and start all over again. There's a lot of prep to go into it, but it's not as much as you think,
especially if you get some vetting, you get some practice, you get some email templates,
which I'll talk about in a bit. So once you're vetting the guest, a big idea, the big deal,
the effort that goes into this is worth it. When you're vetting, you're looking at, are they
interesting? How's their communication style, which I touched on? Are they succinct? Do they get to
the point? Do they want to babble on about their own agenda and not listen to you? Will they entertain,
provide information or are they theirs as an expert? Are you going to fat check anything as
their expertise? Are you just going to let them say what you will? And if they're wrong, oh well,
you'll just risk your authority and people's belief in you. Listen to podcast, previous interviews,
previous podcast interviews. Listen to them with the guest on as an interviewer person.
Is it interesting to you? If not, maybe you want to pass. You don't have to ask everybody,
which is good, right? And research them. Dive in, be curious, Google them, figure out things that
they're best suited for so you can kind of scratch each other's back. They have a maybe a
spissig niche in their expertise that they really want to hone in on or maybe they have a controversial
thought-provoking question. Get people critically thinking without offending that fine balance.
If you have a guest on, you're not a great communicator, an experienced guest could take notice,
could take the lead and then drive your conversation. Why is this bad? Because they'll
probably skew the agenda. They'll start favoring the conversation towards themselves
and then they'll have control of the conversation or it'll be just super awkward and you'll just
be kind of lobbing them questions and be like, hi, I'm here. I'm uninterested and I'm disengaged
because you're no longer a susceptible, acceptable, I'm being susceptible. They're not acceptable. And
then we just kind of cry in the corner. That's not a fun episode. You want it to be like you're
sitting at the table listening to people playing a game of cards, having a good time, and you want
to be able to yell at your phone or your TV or whatever. You're like, ah, that's when you get
the people, the listeners to be super engaged, right? If it's just awkward stuff and somebody's kind of
being host that shouldn't be, everybody's confused and I go, I don't know what's going on. Click,
next, off they go. People listen to about average of eight podcasts in their repertoire,
so you're not the only one. They have seven more to go. They're probably all listening to stuff
at the time and a half speed. May it count. Are you going to pay for a guest? Should you? Is that
a good idea? But I really want to be on this person's podcast and I love them and I need to be on
there or I'm really desperate to get my whatever out your podcast, your book, your movie, your music,
your product, your service, your thing that you're selling, whatever it is. I feel that's greedy.
I do feel that's greedy.
First, we talk about outreach. Yeah, I know. Tease. I got you hooked. We'll figure out paying for
guests and why. I dislike that very much, but outreach. So if you're looking at cold calling,
emailing, or reaching out to people asking a professional, come on your show, be professional.
Use a standard email template because that speeds up your workflow, right? Considering
leveraging calendar like Calendly or whatever, they don't have to be expensive. They can be free.
Availability with your reminder. So maybe you have a reverse tool so you block all the spots on
your calendar and then the available stuff shows up on your calendar, Calendly link. Fire that off
to your guest in the email that's professional and say, hey, when do you want to show up? Even if it's
a couple of weeks out, that's okay. But it's a lot easier. Instead of going back and forth,
they just want to clock this day work no Friday, no, that's a holiday. No, how about this day? Oh,
my kid's sick. I got to do this. No, just let them send it. And a lot of those calendar tools,
they send an automated reminder. For me, forgetful, I need the stuff to do. I have things going on and
I need reminders or else I forget and the hour goes by and say, I'm sorry, I forgot that you exist.
My apologies. That looks bad. Nobody wants that. So when you're sending out the email,
maybe you want to come up with a few things, especially if you're looking at expectations,
you know, when you're sending reminders to the guests, don't expect them to know everything. Say,
hey, guest, I know you probably knew it podcast, you're an expert, but this is what I like to do
to make sure that everybody's on the same page and the quality is there. You down proper recording
space. Don't record in a train station. That'd be nice. Add a kit, how we're going to kind of go
about things. And if you're expecting that you have a very quick timeframe, maybe 15, 20 minutes,
hey, by the way, I might cut you off. Don't take it personally. If I feel things are going along
too long, because I want to get the most out of this episode, have some really great snippets for
you to share with your audience. And they'll understand as long as you preface that instead
of going, I don't like you, I'm bored, cut. It's, it's, you see what I mean? The little things.
And that's what to expect. You have the equipment, wear earphones, wear, have some sort of microphone,
whatever you do, try not to talk into your laptop because that's an editor's nightmare. I know from
experience. Just be nice to everybody. And maybe avoid the screaming kids in the background. And
if you're remote, I'd have a stable internet connection. Try not to do this on your phone
in the Everglades on top of Mount Everest. That'd be nice. Because a lot of these remote tools,
they'll save all the stuff temporarily, the internet recording things onto your browser or
your computer temporarily, and then they'll upload to their cloud storage on the podcast service.
And it takes a few minutes. And sometimes if you run into storage or internet connection sucks,
sucks, it just dies. And you're like, well, that, that was a nice 70% of the episode. Thanks for
nothing. It's not fun for anybody. So make sure you have those little things in place and make sure
that you're not assuming that they know everything because they might forget stuff or it might be
a while or be like, Hey, I never thought about that. Thanks a lot. There you go. When you're
sending the cold emails, maybe you want a point form title, like podcast guest request with specific
topic, maybe the title, that's all you need. Just be very direct. Be like, Hey, I want you as a guest,
they'll see the topic. Okay, I want to be a guest. This is cool. Maybe share your name and the body,
what you do and make a quick summary. Three lines. Is that good? Your intentions, what's going on,
what the podcast is, kind of feel out. Maybe you want to say why they should be on your show.
What's what's in it for them? And maybe you want to sell your podcast, maybe you've had some awards,
maybe you haven't. Here's a link. It's pretty cool. I could be biased. Time to shine, but don't go on
too much. Share the benefit for them. Give them an idea of your audience demographic. Maybe they
have specific specific people's in mind to sell stuff to and they want to borrow your audience,
you know, share audience members and gain some sales. Why do you want them? Are they awesome?
What are you curious about? How do you tie into the topic? What what angle are you trying to get
out of? Are they going to be interested? Maybe you want to ask their recommendations. Hey,
I'll ask some questions, but is there anything particular that you want to talk about specifically?
And you kind of work from there to negotiate, you know, and don't be afraid to say, Hey,
I'll schedule 45 minutes, 10 for housekeeping, 30 to record, five to wait for the episode to upload
to the the glorious podcast remote app storage thing. If you can, don't do the pre podcast,
podcast episode because that waits people's time. It shows that you're not prepared and you're not
confident. Just go for it. Do some work beforehand to research and practice and then go. And you
can always edit if you have to follow up maybe a week, maybe two, but don't follow up every day.
Don't bug them in the IMS because then you look like a needy fool that's homeless and has nothing
better to do. Paying for a guest, I told you I'm getting back to it, but what the real part behind
paying for this stuff is that you are no longer organic. Okay. So when you pay for something,
it's no longer organic and it's no longer something that just kind of happens. It's now an episode
that's in it's 30 minute advertisement truth. So somebody is wanting to make money off of this.
Say you're the host and you want to charge gas to be on because you suck at advertising stream
or you're greedy or something. Honestly, that's what I think like you're getting somebody to come
on for free to have the ability to tap into their audience. They're tapping into your audience.
You're having content that provides an outlet for your followers or your listeners and
you're still charging somebody. I think it's a bit egotistical to say I am so good
to show up on the podcast. Some people might charge if they have a million bazillion followers,
but it's rare unless you're selling something and you want to control the narrative, you go on and
just share the audience and have a good time. You get exposure, they get content and Bob's your uncle.
Maybe if you're paying to be on a podcast, you don't have time to solicit podcast hosts to be a
guest. So you actually pay somebody to do the work. Some sort of guest matchmaking service. Okay,
I understand that somebody's paying for a service and getting you on podcasts. You don't have time.
That's fine. And maybe you charge yourself for your business more than what somebody charges
you to do that. Win-win. You can still go out and make money, gain sales. Cool. Maybe you're
promoting a book or movie or product or service that you really want to push out. Maybe you're
Dragon's Den or a Shark Tank, a guru and you want to pay because you have this, I don't know,
Swiffer type thing that's going to go off the chain. Sure. Sure. Then it's an advertisement
you're sponsoring the episode. Maybe you want to provide the speaking points. I see a lot of times
on YouTube, people will provide a product and also pay the YouTuber to be on there and say this
episode, we're just going to talk about this product. But usually the caveat is that the person,
the YouTuber is able to have free speech and not able to, they don't have to give up their
authenticness and their, the nature of them, their expertise. They don't have to sell themselves out.
You know, they don't have to give in. They can still be paid to do something with some
authenticity and honesty and have their themselves intact so that they don't lose followers.
That's not a bad idea, but you have to be careful because, you know,
there's money involved and sometimes you're kind of swayed to say things. You have to.
Depends on the agreement, depends on the contract, but most of the time you shouldn't have to.
My worry is that I see a lot of people being charged thousands of dollars to be a guest on a
podcast and sometimes those contracts will actually say, hey, we don't even have to put up the
podcast. It feels scammy. It seems one-sided that there's not a mutual benefit. And back
before this was socially accepted a podcast where there wasn't just a people underground and, you
know, their mom's basement nerden out and trying to figure this stuff out, it was more organic and
people just want to have a conversation kind of like radio in a modern sense, right? It's just
everybody's helping each other, having a good time, talking out of mirror and enjoying themselves
and just doing a creative thing and whatever. Instead of writing a book or journaling, they're
just podcasting. And then the money thing kind of takes away from that, especially if you're
having to pay an upfront fee and a contract with no guarantees. It makes me feel bitter.
I don't like that. Up to you, but don't if you can help it unless you're, you know, super famous
and you're desperate, even still. Guest and host, mutual benefit. That's where we want.
The guest again gets access to an untapped network audience that they can, you know, hopefully be
an expert and suggest maybe there's a couple people that would be interested in product and
service and they'll go by linky links, whatever. And the host will gain a new audience from the
guest to have this cool stuff that people want to hear about. And maybe it'll interest people
listen to podcasts more. That's the benefit. And for me, honestly, without knowing your situation,
if you have to charge to make money, you're not doing it right.
No, if you have to charge to be on a podcast for someone to come onto your podcast, you're not
doing it right. There's advertising, there's sponsorship, there's all this other stuff that
you could be doing. And you're not or you want more. There's other ways. Sell merch to do monthly
subscriptions, make a deal with a podcast provider like Spotify, like Joe Rogan does.
Get your brand going. Build the business.
Have a good time. When you're a host,
have guests for the love of goodness sake. Provide the question outline ahead of time.
Even if it's point form, here's a vague idea, a rough idea of what I'm looking at kind of asking.
So you're prepared. I wouldn't say every question and write it out so they can memorize and sound
like a robot. No, but give them a gist, give them an idea of how this is going to transpire
so that they can prepare an angle or make sure that their research is on point and accurate.
So you don't have to fast check. Fact, fact, fast fact check efficiently. Ah, fact check it is.
In the pre-episode episode, I think is a waste of time. People are like, why are you having me on
here? I thought we were recording. No, I just want to talk to you and waste your time because I'm not
confident. That's what it comes across as. Whether or not you want to practice, that's what it comes
out to. Whether or not you want to practice, that's nice practice on your own time, please.
I find that severely annoying. If you have to reschedule, give a lot of notice, please and
thank you as much as you can. People are sick or their kids lose their absolute mind and throw
up all over your shoes or your microphone. You don't have a lot of time. I get it, but try.
Emails, IMS, avoid creating noise. You're not their best friend. Stop it. Stop it right now.
All the gifts 300 times a day. No, do not be nice, cordial. Remember we're professionals and they're
your best friend for 30 minutes. That's it. Unless you become best friends, that's your choice.
Listen more than you talk. So when you're asking questions, shut up.
Ask the question, shut up. That's it. One follow up and move on, please.
If you can avoid going, aha, yes, halfway through, that'd be nice.
And if you're going to tell a story about you, be succinct to have the conversation and use it
as a segue to the next question to kind of move and flow. Don't be like, Hey, I remember this time
that I did this thing in high school. It was mildly related to your topic because I love myself. No.
Stick to the time you promised. Don't go way over. That's annoying. And make it easy for your
guests to share the episode. There's a lot of AI generated tools out there you may hate or love.
And a lot of tools make it easy to make clippy clips and nine by 16 or Instagram format or
YouTube format. Make a bunch of clips, have the closed caption going, do a transcript. Here's
some, here's a video, the raw stuff so you can use it for whatever you wish. Enjoy and treat the guest
like they're better than sliced bread. They are the most important, most expert-y person on your
podcast forever and always, even though it's weird because it'll happen and repeat itself every
episode, but that's the gist. If you get sick of editing, you're kind of lost on your podcast or
you just need a little bit of a pat on the head. Talkpodcastwithme.com.
Email me, Elijah. Hi at talkpodcastwithme.com. I've been in this game for a while. I'm starting
now that my kids are old enough. I don't feel guilty doing my own thing and side hustling. See
where this thing goes. I miss radio. I miss podcasts doing this professionally for now a couple years,
but been in the game since God, 20 years on and off. Some people say being enthusiast counts.
This is a count for you. Check out the podcast trailer. Let's start a podcast in the episode.
See if you think I'm worth it. Head out to my email and DMs on LinkedIn. Threads is mostly where
I'm at. I'd love to say hi and chat. If you have questions, I'm not going to charge you
money just to hang out, but if you want my help forever and always, we can chat.
I need to do you and I can make you sound super cool. What do you think? Should you pay to be a
guest? Do you now know some etiquette on how to be a podcast host to treat your guest like royalty
and do you have a clue where to find your next podcast guest? Hopefully it makes it easier for
you. Guess. Be one, but be alert. Keep your stick on the ice. Keep alert. Stay safe and have some
fun. Enjoy the adventure. It's supposed to be a good time. Okay. If you have any questions,
drop me a note. Podcast resources are at talkpodcastwithme.com slash podcast.
All the archive blogs and audio is there and sharing a little bit of a deep dive into every
episode just for you. I'm Elijah. Let's start a podcast. I'll see you soon.
Let's start a podcast.