After 5+ years of podcasting and 280+ episodes, I wanted to share “How I Podcast” for you. Even if you don’t have a podcast, hopefully there is something in here for you! 🙏
Ok… let’s dive in!
Reaching out to someone to be on your show
Assuming you have an interview-based show, this is kind of the start of an episode. In my usually an email, I often mention a thing or two I want to talk to them about. In this email, I want to show the person that I am familiar with them and their work, and how my show is a fit for them.
But how do I decide who to invite? I often look for a “conversation catalyst” among people I want to learn from. Something that has happened recently on their end. Or something they want more people to know about. An author with a new book is an example of this!
And where do I find prospective podcast guests? I have mostly discovered new people through Twitter, events in NYC, and/or other podcasts.
The actual ask and invitation
Here is a podcast invite example email, which includes a Loom video embedded in it.
I mostly do this over email. A few times over Twitter DM and text messages, but that’s rare. When making my ask, I try to put all of the important and needed information into this one email. I want to make it super easy for someone to say yes. Effectively, I want the other person to reply saying “yes, I am in. That day and time works for me. Please send me a calendar invite.”
That’s it. That is the goal 🙏
Interview prep
Listening to other podcasts has been a game-changer for interview research. While listening, I put ideas and potential questions into an Apple Notes file(s). I really like listening and reading a transcription through Otter at the same time as well. When listening, I am looking for key topics, actionable ideas, personal stories, etc. Scanning social media helps too. But podcasts have the highest signal :)
The interview
Well actually, there are two main things before we press record:
I email the podcast guest 24-48 hours before with expected talking points. I want them to know generally what we are going to talk about.
Building rapport with your guest: The goal is to do this quickly because there is often a small time window of around 5 minutes to do so. With many interviews, I go straight from a cold email to the podcast episode. A little bit rapport here can go a long way!
This is another reason why the first question is extremely important. It sets the tone.
I try to ask something I think they are excited about, very knowledgable about, etc. I try to dive right into this too! I don’t ask the guest to introduce themselves, which can be hard to do and may not be that interesting to the listener…. like you, right?
For the overall episode arc, I try to follow a Story, Message, and Call-To-Action framework.
What is someone’s Story: How did they get here, what is their background, etc.
What is their Message: What do they think more people should know. What is their spiky point of view as Wes Kao may say?
What is their Call-To-Action: If I agree with their message, how can someone act on that? What is one thing someone could do?
Increasingly, I am hosting Podcast Mixers. These episodes are more of a conversation than an interview. I try to make this more interactive with the people attending too!
Post-interview
Within 24 hours, I email the person thanking them for their time and let them know when I think the episode will be live. Apparently, this is not very common. Simple and clear communication surprisingly stands out…. Wild, right? I don’t really ask people to share the episode either. If they want to, they will.
Any questions? Reply back! 👋
Want to learn more and start podcasting? You can sign-up for my free course here!
Portfolio Career Podcast Episodes
🎧 Episode 285: How They Got A New Job
In this Podcast Mixer episode, you will hear 6 short stories about how people got roles… some really recent ones too!
Two themes from the episode were:
- building relationships before you need them
- asking for help, like for a referral, when you need it….because applying online really does not work
🎧 Episode 284: Becoming A Full-Time Fractional Worker with Bethany Crystal
Are you interested in learning more about fractional work (i.e. more than one job/gig at a time)? Listen to this new episode with Bethany! Here are a few takeaways on how to do it:
- Set Boundaries: try not to spend more than 50% of time on one role, so one role does not creep to closer to full-time. Bethany has 4 different work email addresses.
- Self-promotion: it's important to regularly be putting yourself out there for people to learn from and connect with you
- Understand Your Value: if you could get full-time offers from different fields and/or types of roles, this shows that you have a lot to offer and potentially for multiple roles!
- BYOC. It's important to Build Your Own Community because you won't have a built-in network that you may get at a full-time role. So, create your own!
That’s it for now! What stood out to you? Let me know!
~ David Nebinski who is about to record an intro for this week’s episode 😊
PS: you can sign-up for my podcasting course here and technical details on how I podcast are here too!
PPS: on a scale of 1-100, how are you doing today? Reply back with just the number like “97” which is how August was for me 👋