WEBVTT 00:00:02.739 --> 00:00:06.320 Welcome to the streamlined podcaster, a podcast 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:08.779 that shows you how to put the right systems in 00:00:08.779 --> 00:00:12.279 place so you can stop spinning your wheels, focus 00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:15.140 on making great content and see your show grow. 00:00:15.740 --> 00:00:17.859 Because there's nothing worse than putting a 00:00:17.859 --> 00:00:20.739 ton of effort into your show to see very few 00:00:20.739 --> 00:00:24.519 benefits and even fewer downloads. My name is 00:00:24.519 --> 00:00:27.120 Joe Casabona and I know you're strapped for time. 00:00:27.379 --> 00:00:34.200 So let's get into it. Hello, hello, today I want 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:40.359 to talk about three things that you should not 00:00:40.359 --> 00:00:45.020 do as part of your podcast guest process. Now, 00:00:45.460 --> 00:00:48.359 I'm a guy who recommends, hey, automate as much 00:00:48.359 --> 00:00:52.320 as possible, do things that will make your life 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:56.740 easier, but everything should be in the service 00:00:56.740 --> 00:01:01.939 of you being able to show up more personably 00:01:01.939 --> 00:01:06.060 build relationships and do right by your guests 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:10.319 and your audience. And I've noticed just like 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:13.400 a terrible trend lately in things that podcast 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:15.480 hosts are doing that they should not be doing. 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:19.340 So here are three things to remove from your 00:01:19.340 --> 00:01:23.620 podcast guest process immediately. The first. 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:27.379 auto -subscribing guests to your mailing list. 00:01:27.659 --> 00:01:29.680 If you're in the United States, you are not allowed 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:33.540 to do this. As part of the Can Spam Act of 2003, 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:36.719 you need to make it so that people explicitly 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:39.459 opt into your mailing list and there is an easy 00:01:39.459 --> 00:01:43.299 way for them to unsubscribe. But just beyond 00:01:43.299 --> 00:01:47.900 that, don't assume that your guests want to get 00:01:47.900 --> 00:01:50.980 your emails just because they're coming on your 00:01:50.980 --> 00:01:55.750 show. Maybe your emails don't help your guest. 00:01:57.209 --> 00:01:59.569 What you're essentially saying is, hey, thanks 00:01:59.569 --> 00:02:02.150 for giving me your free time. I'm also going 00:02:02.150 --> 00:02:08.150 to invade your inbox. So if you want your guests 00:02:08.150 --> 00:02:11.870 to join your mailing list, add it as a tick box 00:02:11.870 --> 00:02:16.870 to your Calendly form and say, hey, I think my 00:02:16.870 --> 00:02:18.669 mailing list would be really helpful to you. 00:02:18.689 --> 00:02:21.860 Would you like to join it? If you're not doing 00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:24.000 that and you're just auto -subscribing them, 00:02:24.340 --> 00:02:28.340 what you're doing is, at worst, illegal. And 00:02:28.340 --> 00:02:34.000 at best, just kind of crappy. It makes it seem 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.340 like you only have your podcast to build your 00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:38.039 mailing list and who cares what the guest thinks. 00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:42.539 And don't be surprised if they unsubscribe either. 00:02:43.539 --> 00:02:46.439 This happened to me recently. Somebody added 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:48.360 me to their mailing list I didn't give them permission 00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:51.669 to. And then they didn't have an unsubscribe 00:02:51.669 --> 00:02:53.449 button. And so I had to email them and say, hey, 00:02:53.550 --> 00:02:55.289 remove me from this list. And they were like, 00:02:55.289 --> 00:02:57.770 I'm a little surprised. I'm like, well, you shouldn't 00:02:57.770 --> 00:03:01.090 be. I didn't give you permission to email to 00:03:01.090 --> 00:03:04.930 put me on a mailing list. You know, and so I 00:03:04.930 --> 00:03:07.550 feel real strongly about this. Your guests are 00:03:07.550 --> 00:03:09.729 taking time out of their day to give you free 00:03:09.729 --> 00:03:14.409 content. Don't reward them by invading their 00:03:14.409 --> 00:03:21.030 inbox. Similarly, number two. Don't tell them 00:03:21.030 --> 00:03:26.289 to provide questions for you to ask. I'm sure 00:03:26.289 --> 00:03:28.030 I've talked about this before because this is 00:03:28.030 --> 00:03:31.629 a pet peeve of mine. My guest form is easy as 00:03:31.629 --> 00:03:35.150 possible. If I am inviting somebody onto my podcast, 00:03:36.370 --> 00:03:39.110 they should not have to fill out a million forms 00:03:39.110 --> 00:03:42.889 or a million fields. When I've been invited on 00:03:42.889 --> 00:03:45.669 shows, I've had to fill out 10 or more questions. 00:03:46.030 --> 00:03:48.629 What's your social media handles? How many followers 00:03:48.629 --> 00:03:51.050 do you have? What topic should we talk about? 00:03:52.210 --> 00:03:55.330 And, oh, give me five to seven questions that 00:03:55.330 --> 00:03:59.770 I should ask you. That's your job as the host. 00:04:00.030 --> 00:04:03.330 You know your audience better than me. You're 00:04:03.330 --> 00:04:07.969 presumably having me on your show to bring my 00:04:07.969 --> 00:04:11.659 expertise. So when you're inviting somebody onto 00:04:11.659 --> 00:04:15.020 your podcast, you should already know what you're 00:04:15.020 --> 00:04:18.040 going to talk about. Otherwise, it just seems 00:04:18.040 --> 00:04:20.620 like you'll interview anybody in an attempt to 00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:25.220 just churn out to be a content factory. So when 00:04:25.220 --> 00:04:26.699 you invite somebody on your show, you should 00:04:26.699 --> 00:04:28.379 know what you're going to talk about and generally 00:04:28.379 --> 00:04:31.139 what questions you're going to ask. When I invite 00:04:31.139 --> 00:04:33.500 somebody on the show, I always propose a topic. 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:36.120 Hey, I'd love to have you on to talk about this. 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:39.139 Does that make sense for you? they'll either 00:04:39.139 --> 00:04:40.920 say yes they should say yes because I've done 00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:43.600 research or they'll say oh I'm not really talking 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:45.379 about that I'd rather talk about this does that 00:04:45.379 --> 00:04:47.879 make sense and if it does great and if it doesn't 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:53.339 like I know not really but I I always propose 00:04:53.339 --> 00:04:55.300 the topic and then I come up with the questions 00:04:55.300 --> 00:04:58.839 because I as as the host I know my audience I 00:04:58.839 --> 00:05:01.720 know the story I'm trying to tell I'm not trying 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:04.620 to get you to do the interview for me Because 00:05:04.620 --> 00:05:06.259 that also makes crappy content, right? Because 00:05:06.259 --> 00:05:07.939 what am I gonna do? I'm gonna think about the 00:05:07.939 --> 00:05:10.699 questions that I get asked the most often or 00:05:10.699 --> 00:05:13.100 questions I never get asked that maybe have nothing 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:16.720 to do with your audience. Ask me what my favorite 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:20.019 pizza topping is. Spoiler alert, it's cheese. 00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:25.060 Cheese pizza is the only good pizza. So like, 00:05:25.459 --> 00:05:27.779 that's your job as the host. Stop asking your 00:05:27.779 --> 00:05:30.920 guests to do your job for you. Related. Number 00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:34.079 three. Stop telling guests that they have to 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:38.339 share it with their audience. That is also not 00:05:38.339 --> 00:05:43.259 your job. They are not your PR department. If 00:05:43.259 --> 00:05:45.860 you are just having them on so that they share 00:05:45.860 --> 00:05:48.240 with your audience, you are not doing right by 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:50.240 your audience. You are not doing right by the 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:55.939 guest. Your job is to do a good enough job interviewing 00:05:55.939 --> 00:06:01.579 that the guest wants to share. And I will do 00:06:01.579 --> 00:06:03.699 that. If I am on a particularly good interview, 00:06:04.100 --> 00:06:05.759 like here's because here's the thing, right? 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:10.639 I go on a lot of podcasts. Good like people who 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:13.839 enjoy podcasting or podcast guesting tend to 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:16.839 go on a lot. I'm not going to email my my list 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:19.120 every week with, hey, these are the three podcasts 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:22.519 I was on this week. I have a content schedule. 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.060 Also, hey, here are the three podcasts I was 00:06:26.060 --> 00:06:27.860 on this week. I talked about the same exact thing 00:06:27.860 --> 00:06:31.089 on all of them. Now I'm not serving my audience. 00:06:31.910 --> 00:06:38.829 I'm not that active on social media. I saw one 00:06:38.829 --> 00:06:41.389 recently that was like, you promised to share 00:06:41.389 --> 00:06:44.050 this within 48 hours of publishing. This ain't 00:06:44.050 --> 00:06:48.889 a legal contract. This isn't an agreement that 00:06:48.889 --> 00:06:51.569 we're entering into. So I can either lie to you 00:06:51.569 --> 00:06:53.110 and say, yeah, sure, I'll do it. And then you 00:06:53.110 --> 00:06:55.970 can't do anything if I don't. You can unpublish 00:06:55.970 --> 00:06:58.589 it, I guess. But who cares, right? I mean, it's 00:06:58.589 --> 00:07:00.290 kind of obvious that you don't have a good audience 00:07:00.290 --> 00:07:02.470 anyway if you're forcing me to share it with 00:07:02.470 --> 00:07:07.069 mine. Or I always choose to be upfront with these 00:07:07.069 --> 00:07:09.410 things and say, hey, I'm not going to promise 00:07:09.410 --> 00:07:11.189 to share it. Like, if you want to have me on 00:07:11.189 --> 00:07:14.629 your show, great. If you're only using me for 00:07:14.629 --> 00:07:16.629 my audience, then we shouldn't do this. Same 00:07:16.629 --> 00:07:18.790 thing with the what questions should I ask you? 00:07:18.790 --> 00:07:20.350 I always say, you know your audience better. 00:07:21.089 --> 00:07:23.769 So you come up with the questions. And like, 00:07:23.769 --> 00:07:26.209 if that's not good enough, that's fine. I don't 00:07:26.209 --> 00:07:28.230 want to waste my time going on like crappy podcasts. 00:07:29.389 --> 00:07:31.730 And like as a host myself, I put a lot of effort 00:07:31.730 --> 00:07:35.250 into making sure my guests have a good experience 00:07:35.250 --> 00:07:37.670 and that we cover things that they don't normally 00:07:37.670 --> 00:07:41.670 cover. Because that is how I serve my audience. 00:07:41.850 --> 00:07:45.810 And now let me rewind and tell you what I'm not 00:07:45.810 --> 00:07:47.889 saying. Number one, don't auto subscribe them 00:07:47.889 --> 00:07:51.930 to your mailing list. You can still get permission 00:07:51.930 --> 00:07:55.209 to add them to your mailing list. Number two, 00:07:55.769 --> 00:07:58.310 telling them to provide questions to ask you. 00:07:58.930 --> 00:08:01.370 Don't make them give you five to seven questions, 00:08:01.370 --> 00:08:02.790 but say like, hey, is there anything you want 00:08:02.790 --> 00:08:05.689 me, is there anything that you definitely want 00:08:05.689 --> 00:08:10.189 me to cover on this show? That's fine, right? 00:08:10.189 --> 00:08:11.829 Because now you're like, hey, if you have a book 00:08:11.829 --> 00:08:13.550 coming out or something and I don't know, it's 00:08:13.550 --> 00:08:16.329 not public knowledge, definitely tell me. And 00:08:16.329 --> 00:08:18.569 number three, telling them they have to share 00:08:18.569 --> 00:08:21.670 with their audience, don't do. Ask them, provide 00:08:21.670 --> 00:08:24.470 some assets for them to share. Definitely do 00:08:24.470 --> 00:08:28.699 that. Tag them on social media? Absolutely. But 00:08:28.699 --> 00:08:32.039 like, don't invite them onto your show and then 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:34.360 force them to do a bunch of things that are good 00:08:34.360 --> 00:08:37.159 for you and have no benefit for them. Because 00:08:37.159 --> 00:08:41.620 that's not your job. That's not their job. Your 00:08:41.620 --> 00:08:45.000 job is to create great content for your audience. 00:08:45.460 --> 00:08:48.360 The guest's job is to help you do that. And as 00:08:48.360 --> 00:08:50.240 long as they hold up their end of the bargain, 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:52.799 you shouldn't force them to do anything else. 00:08:53.529 --> 00:08:57.909 I feel very strong about this. Right? And again, 00:08:58.250 --> 00:09:01.070 if the guest comes to you and says, like, hey, 00:09:01.350 --> 00:09:05.809 I usually like covering these topics, or these 00:09:05.809 --> 00:09:08.669 are some questions nobody ever asks me, or I 00:09:08.669 --> 00:09:10.450 have a book coming out in a couple of months, 00:09:10.450 --> 00:09:13.029 I'd love if you asked me about that. That's fine. 00:09:13.929 --> 00:09:16.990 Or if they opt into your mailing list, also fine. 00:09:18.090 --> 00:09:22.860 Right? If they choose to share it, great. Our 00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:30.720 job as podcasters is to serve our audience, not 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:35.940 use our guests as a growth engine. So definitely 00:09:35.940 --> 00:09:38.419 remove those things. If you're doing that, I 00:09:38.419 --> 00:09:40.340 came at you really strong today. I feel really 00:09:40.340 --> 00:09:43.820 strongly about that. People's time is valuable. 00:09:44.659 --> 00:09:47.039 Don't waste your guests time by forcing them 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:48.779 to do a bunch of things that you're supposed 00:09:48.779 --> 00:09:53.279 to do. You deeply disagree with me. Let me know 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:57.860 over at streamlinedfeedback .com. Thanks so much 00:09:57.860 --> 00:10:00.860 for listening to the Streamlined Podcaster. I 00:10:00.860 --> 00:10:03.799 really appreciate it. And until next time, I 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:07.500 hope you find some space in your week. Thanks 00:10:07.500 --> 00:10:10.019 so much for listening. If you are wondering how 00:10:10.019 --> 00:10:13.220 you can save more time in your processes, if 00:10:13.220 --> 00:10:16.100 you're feeling overwhelmed, Head on over to streamlined 00:10:16.100 --> 00:10:19.620 .fm slash overwhelm and take the overwhelm quiz. 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:23.379 It's six questions and you will get personalized 00:10:23.379 --> 00:10:25.620 results, a personalized blueprint for what to 00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:29.320 do based on your answers. That's over at streamlined 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:32.440 .fm slash overwhelm. And again, thanks so much 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:34.799 for listening to the streamlined podcaster.