How To Be A Better Podcast Interviewer - For Your Guest And Listeners

Respect Your Guest’s Knowledge And Time

So, let’s hit some basics first, to set the groundwork for being a great podcast interviewer.

There are basically two reasons to have guests on your podcast

1. for you - to network, to meet new people
2. for your listeners - with three objectives for your listeners - you need to educate, or entertain, or energize - or all three

Don’t Forget You Are Hosting A Show

To capture the attention of your audience and keep them engaged, present your podcast with energy.  Insert some power, emphasis and excitement into your voice.

Get the right balance, and they’ll hear a confident podcast host who is in control.  All the while you are calm, relaxed and conversational.

And that takes practice.

Practice Makes Better and Better - There’s Never Perfect

Practice will help you and the balance between sounding natural and performing while you're hosting a show.

Nobody likes the sound of their own voice. But as a host, listening back - or as broadcasters call it, listening to a sound check of your work - will help you improve much faster.  

And this also means getting feedback from non-family members.  Those that will give you TRUE feedback as a non-partisan listener.  You only get better with honest feedback.  Honesty will get you there quicker.

As a podcast show host, how do you become a great interviewer?

Note To Future Me - Master Your Podcast Interviewing Skills

I recently interviewed Mark Nuce on my Note To Future Me podcast. He’s a radio broadcast veteran of 30+ years. He is the news and public affairs director at North American Broadcasting, Incorporated in Columbus Ohio. What a better resource could there be than a veteran newscaster and news interviewer.

The four key areas that we talked about to master podcast interviewing include: 1) homework and research 2) planning 3) flexibility 4) listening

Those 4 areas are key to becoming a great podcast interviewer.

Respect Your Guest’s Knowledge And Time

Respecting the Guest’s Knowledge

Research, research, research.

“Know” about your targeted guest BEFORE making contact. We have never had so much information at our fingertips to access anyone’s information as we do today.

Check out their website. 

• There you may find links to personal and company blogs
• Your guest might have a blog on their personal website, write on their business’s blog, or contribute to other blogs as well.

Check out all of their social media channels. 

• Twitter’s advanced search makes it easy to filter by the number of likes as well as the number of retweets and any keyword or phrase. 
• LinkedIn profiles. If the professional background of your guest is of interest, their LinkedIn profile will come in handy. You can also dig into their “Activity” to find what they’ve been posting about.
• Find out who they may be connected to via social media. There may be someone you know, you may have in common. 

If they have a podcast, or have been on podcasts as a guest, listen to a few episodes - especially ones you have an interest in. Here are a couple of easy ways to search podcasts.

• Listen Notes describes itself as a search engine for podcasts. This makes it easy to dig up past guest appearances your potential guest has made on other...