Podcaster Tips for Creating Home-run Interviews

going on almost 13 years now. So we've got about 26 years, maybe even 30, if I'm being like, a little liberal on the counting of podcasting and interview experience, I tried to think of of a number the other day, and I would say, if I'm being super conservative, I would say I've done 200 maybe 250 interviews, if I'm being maybe a little more, aiming for an accurate number, I think definitely more than 300 I've definitely done at least 300 interviews. But I'd say conservative wise, about 200

what would you say? I

Just considering, you know, I have about 1000 shows under my belt, if most of them have been interviews, then it would be at least 500 and then if a lot of them, I would say probably 30% had multiple interviews, then, yeah, I think 600 700 is accurate. Now

It's always, you can always learn something new at any point in this podcast journey. So when you think about, I guess, let's start like this. How do you prep for an interview. Is there anything that you feel that you do in particular that goes a long way in making the interview smooth for you, or getting you set up and confident when you turn on the mic and, you know, start the show? Well,

upcoming conversation. But I also really like looking at their social media. I think that that is where you can find the juiciest nuggets, and you can really find out really who somebody is based on their social media profiles. It was especially useful when I was interviewing athletes, and you'd go to their Twitter profile, and that's when likes were still publicly available. So you just scroll through their likes and you see what they engage with. And sometimes it was a little

questionable. I didn't, I don't think they knew that this stuff was public, but it very much was. But other times, like I'm there's a player I'm blanking on his name that we interviewed. And a lot of times these guys can get asked the same questions all the time. And so where I found a good niche for me was to scroll through some of their social media engagement. And he had played like League of Legends, and he was in all of these different like League of

Legends, like fandoms. Comes, and he was liking all of these tweets related to League of Legends. And so the moment, pulling that piece of it, a nugget of conversation, and bringing that to the interview, his face lit up when I asked him about this. And so ever since then, that has been like, the key to a really great interview is watching the previous interviews and listening to them

as much as you can. There's only so much time in the day, of course, but if you want to kind of cut to the chase, is going to their social media profiles and seeing what kind of content they post, what kind of content they reply to. A lot of times, the likes are hidden now, so you can't really see that kind of information, but there's still enough out there that you can garner that makes for really fun conversation and makes the guest

feel comfortable. Because that's, I don't know if we're going into our tips, but my number one tip is, how quickly can I make the guest feel

comfortable? And that is a really quick way, is to find some like level playing field with them that maybe I don't, I don't care about League of Legends, but I, you know, I have played other games and other video games, sort of growing up, and so it was just a way to for me to create a level playing field, I guess, with a guest and ask them a question that they're

not typically asked. Instantly builds trust, instantly builds a comfortable nature with the guest, and makes the rest of the conversation flow much more smoothly and more fun.

making the website. So to see, like, what they promote about themselves, what their bio says, like, what's in their portfolio section, things like that, I think go a long way in terms of, like, getting, like, the bare basics, right? Like, for me, it's it's Wikipedia, it's their Twitter, their Instagram, if they have it, especially their their website, their bio there to your point is building that, building, yeah, just building

that, that familiarity. I think the sooner that you could break down any tension or awkwardness, or, you know that timidness that comes initially when you first hop on someone, you have no a stranger, and just getting like that warmth going, I think, goes a long way making the rest of the interview a lot smoother, maybe even pulling out some unique stories. I liked what you said about listening to other interviews. I I am so surprised when I hear other podcasters say, you know, they just kind of

wing it. It's like, which, you know, for me is whatever I like to listen to other podcasts and interviews, because I think that's what separates a professional, right. Is like, are you listening to other shows and, you know, learning from other shows and things like that, but especially when it comes to interviews, to interviews, I'm not listening for the answers in particular. I

mean, granted, yes, I am. And the questions, I'm more so listening for the questions and answers that haven't been asked or brought up, you know, like finding a question that another person asked and the the response. And if there's anything left there, you know, like, did they go deep enough? Was there a clarifying question? Follow up, I think those give you a lot of, you know, opportunities to maybe dive deeper and give something, you know, bring something fresh to

the table. Now, I wanted to, I wanted to also ask, Who are some of your favorite interviewers? Like, when you think about shows that you listen to and, you know interviews that you like hearing like, who are some of your favorite hosts or interviewers?

balanced out since then. There's a lot more voices, but in that sort of time frame, especially when Dan Patrick was starting up his own thing, it really was like, you almost felt like a lot of these broadcasters were trying to create gotcha moments. Dan Patrick is not like that. He has always been sort of the the

voice of reason. For me, when something crazy is going on in the world of sports, I can count on Monday morning that I can listen to him and get a balanced take, but not just a balanced take, but a balanced conversation. And so anytime he starts off, so for folks who may not be aware of like his show, so he typically starts off with a couple of like, the hot topics that's going on in the sports world, and then he'll bring on a

guest. And what I really like about that format is that for the guest, he will typically ask them a question about. Something that they've already talked about previously in the show. And so typical interviews, we'll start off with, hey, you know, how you doing? How'd you get into XYZ? You know, you're asking for a career backstory, which is kind of monotonous, but you got to set the stage for the conversation. You got to set the

stage for the audience. Dan Patrick, instead, will just list the person, they'll list their title, but then he'll ask him, What's your favorite sunflower seeds or something like that, and that just throws the guests off, but in a good way to where they're like, oh, I don't have to answer like, a hard hitting question right away. I can kind of answer something that's a little bit fun, and it immediately eases the tension.

And so that I love that about Dan Patrick, that that is one thing that I have taken from listening to his shows. He's so successful at just interviewing in general that he will ask hard questions, but he'll ask it in a way that it feels like your friend or your dad is asking you these types of questions. He I could go on and on about talking

about Dan Patrick. This is not really related to this particular episode, but I think another point is that he genuinely cares, like he cares about what your response is going to be, and you can tell that he's not just listening to your answer. So he can ask his next question. He's gonna ask a follow up based on your answer. He's still gonna ask the other questions that he planned on asking, but his follow up is absolutely going to change based on how you answer it, or how the

guest answers it. And so I've always really admired that too, that he doesn't necessarily

stick to a script. He starts off the conversation in the most friendly way as possible, or the most fun way as possible, then he gets into the and it's kind of like the sandwich method, where you start off with the good, then you get into the bad, then you end with the good and the bad may be, you know, something that's controversial, something that somebody is a little bit afraid to kind of speak on, but it's also something that they're expecting

to talk about on the show. And so when they come to that discussion and you kick it off with what's your favorite sunflower seeds, they're immediately like, oh, okay, I can kind of relax a little bit. I don't have to be so tense. And then it eases them into the conversation. And that's the style that I have really tried to adopt throughout my career history. Because I don't want to have a gotcha moment. I don't want to be sensational. I want

my guests to trust me. I want them to feel like they're having a conversation with me, where microphones happen to be involved. That's the approach that Dan Patrick takes, and that's that's the approach that I try to take to another famous podcaster that obviously everyone knows is Joe Rogan. But I don't listen to Joe Rogan for

his opinions. I listen to him because of a lot of, like, the scientists and the nutritionists, or, you know, people like that that come on his show, and he asks questions from, like, a fifth grader perspective, that I really appreciate that, because a lot of these complex topics, like astrophysics or nutritional guidelines based on, you know, women in their 40s or something, You know, all of these things that are very complex, but he asked it from like, a very entry

level. And then he also gives the guest room to formulate their thoughts. I think for a lot of shows, they're too they're so afraid of the pause. They're so afraid of, like someone taking an extra two seconds to think about what they want to say. What I've noticed in his conversations is that he allows the guests to sort of gather themselves and say, Okay, I need a moment to think about how I want to say this. And he

lets them have that moment. And I think that that's really important in a conversational environment, to allow, I guess, the uncomfortableness to you of a pause, but it allows the guests to really think about what they're going to say before they say it, instead of trying to smash it in to, you know, a six or eight minute segment like what you see on a lot of sort of legacy news networks, that's where you see a lot of these slip ups happen, a lot of emotional things that are said

that you don't really plan on saying. And so I appreciate that format, that level of curiosity, and then allowing the guest to sort of formulate what they want to say, and being comfortable with, you know, a three or four second pause, which I think most hosts could probably stand to, you know, you know, be a little

bit better at,

edit that out. Maybe, if there is a little Flubber or a, you know, pause, a longer pause, and then maybe you'd like, you can always edit that part out. You know, there's a lot of things that you can mask with editing, especially if an audio only podcast that, you know, once you put it in post and do your editing magic, it'll be like, it's never there. But for the longest time for me, everything had to be perfect within the recording time frame. When I press record, it's got to be a

perfect conversation. And, you know, I'm trying to ask the next question to avoid any awkward silence, or, you know, whatever it may be. So I definitely want to reiterate your point of like it's okay if you know your guest needs a moment, or, you know, needs to backtrack, or something like that, like lean in, into the editing aspect, if it's, you know, not live. Obviously, as far as I guess, I'll give two quick interviewers that I really

respect and admire. The first one being a quest love from the quest Love Supreme podcast I've mentioned the show a few times on here, he interviews, uh, pop culture, you know, like musicians, actors, writers, uh, cooks, artists, like, you know, the whole gamut. And what I love about the way he conducts his podcast or his interviews is that one, for the most part, he's got a general, you know, rapport with them in some way. You know, he works, you know, he does Late Night with Jimmy

Fallon. He does other shows. He's a documentary. He's a musician himself. So he's kind of like a jack of all trades. So he already comes at it from, you know, having a background, having being able to speak their language, but he's also like a super nerd, and that's what he's like, known for. He's kind of

like a music snob. He knows, you know, he watches a bunch of movies, so he comes at it from so he's able to pull it out like these, these minutes, these stories that maybe other interviewers wouldn't because they just don't know the subject matter to that level. And he does it in a way where it doesn't feel it. Other time, sometimes it's very inside baseball. Other times, he's able to make it feel very welcoming. And I think that encourages me to be, you know, a bigger fan of

the genre of these things. You know, I do a comic book podcast, but it makes me want to be a bigger fan, you know,

understanding the mechanics. So when I do have a guest on, you know, we can speak a similar language, and that can bring out different aspects, different stories, different perspective from them, because now they don't feel like, oh, is this guy gonna get if I say like this, you know, lingo or this terminology, it's like, yeah, you know, you're on here with good, you know, similar minded

folks. Another person that I recently came across, and I and mainly just from social media, you know, we just did an episode about, you know, marketing campaigns and the power of social media for podcasting. But it is this guy named Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy, yeah, he goes by Kevin McCarthy, TV on Instagram. He is a reporter, an interviewer, I think, in the Washington area, he's got a podcast called Real blend, R, E, E, L blend, and he interviews. He does like the press junk for

a lot of movies. He interviews a lot of actors, a large majority of actors. And some of the biggest ones ends up Washington, Ryan Gosling, Leonard, DiCaprio, you know, the list goes on and on, and his questions are so well for I mean, Now, granted, you're watching a lot of these on just the clips, and he chooses really great clips because the questions are very sincere. He's a big movie buff, so he's asking, like, inside

baseball questions. I think there was a clip in particular where he's talking to Brad Pitt, and they're talking about, you know, like, lighting in a movie. But it was something that Brad Pitt was really nerdy about.

Just so to see, like, you know, Brad Pitt, the coolest, you know, MF, around the planet, like, getting nerdy about lighting and this particular, like, chase scene, I think I'm talking about chase scenes or something like that, you know, like, just that familiarity and just coming across as, hey, I'm a fan. I'm a nerd as well. But I think there's a tastefulness to it, right, where it doesn't feel

so, you know, overbearing. I think personality goes a long way with interviews like building that trust and like, hey, look, I'm just a normal guy like you. And having, I don't know, I guess, like the way they treat the guests as a normal person brings out so many better stories, brings out their personality. So those are two folks that I'll yeah,

that mind frame. But I think also to you know your point, and to echo my earlier point League of Legends, or Brad Pitt with lighting asking questions that they don't typically get asked. Like there's depending on who you're talking to, they're probably asked the same five questions by dozens, sometimes

hundreds of people. So if you can ask something else that allows their personality to shine a little bit those other questions that they're asked by everybody else, you might get a little bit something extra, because that that guest already feels really comfortable with you. They know you've done your research, and they are enjoying the conversation that they're having with you. Yeah,

what comes to mind for you? And I love that, that that balance of inserting a little bit of his story, as well as like following up with a question that brings out a personal a personal story from, you know, in this case, Denzel Washington, where he was one impressed that he had the ticket stub. You know, it's like being able to work in a little shtick, but then also following it up with a really good

question. I think, you know, that's a great tactic, yeah, finding tasteful ways of inserting maybe a little bit of your story, obviously, not taking away the spotlight, because people are there to listen to the interview, to the

person you have on. But I thought that was a good way of like, give and take, you know, making it feel more like a conversation between friends and and I guess that's one of my main tip I've got here, is focusing on make and not only keeping it maybe conversational if your show is formatted or meant to be in that way, but focus on a story approach, rather than a, you know, a column response. You know, like, what's the story you're trying

to get out of your interview? Is a question that I've been asking myself a lot more lately, is, what is this person's story? And like, what am I trying to convey? What is the message or goal of having this person on, you know, is it just going to be to have them answer a list of questions? I could just do that via email, but I want to bring out, you know, their personality. I want to, you know, so thinking I think about your the angle of the interview is a great tip, too. I

interview. Then I will list out a bunch of different tips, like, you know, make sure you're in a quiet setting. Make sure you have your computer notification silence. Make sure you have a bottle of water nearby, because these are all just ways to make the guests feel comfortable. Cannot tell you how many times that I've been on an interview with someone and their slack notifications or their email notifications are going off at the same time that they're having a conversation with me.

That's distracting, not just for me, but for them too, because they're immediately thinking, oh my god, is that audio going to show up on the podcast recording? I'm thinking it too. But then, you know, there, it gets them out of their groove. It gets them out of the tone and the the message that they were, they were on a ride, and this is a little like stick thrown in the in the middle of it, that kind of derails the

conversation. So setting those expectations really early and then also telling them in advance, like, yes, these is sort of the general overview of what we're going to talk about. But don't come with a couple stories. Come with a couple specific stories around these general sort of, I send over like five bullet points, you know, just keep it very high level, but advising them to come up with a couple stories that they can tell based on those

different overviews. So telling them to be prepared in that regard has definitely helped. And adding that kind of the same information that I'm going to tell everybody before every guest, adding it into every email reminder that goes out to them has helped a lot, because I've noticed a considerable improvement on, you know, the amount of people that show up and their notifications are muted. They're in a really good location. They're not getting

interrupted. You know, with doors opening and closing all the time, just little things like that that can derail your conversation. So setting it up for success from the jump as much as possible, I think, helps a ton, too, and it also helps your guest stay comfortable, because you can do all this work and like ask him a great intro question and but if somebody barges in on them while they're having a conversation, they are going to be completely thrown

off. Most of them are, and. That just you'll have to start that process all over again. And as an interviewer, it's your job to make sure that your guest is comfortable, because if they're not comfortable, then they're not going to give you a good story, a good response, and then it has a negative impact on your audience. And so it's your job to make sure that those types of situations, or those types of I think situations that could arise are, you try to alleviate them as much as possible ahead

of time. I

going with the flow. I think it's one thing to guide the flow, but you don't want to be too rigid where you miss an opportunity to hear like a good perspective or a good story, or go into like a field or a tangent that means something to the to the interview, into the interviewee. Sorry, so you know, and I that's what I'm saying, is like letting the conversation

brief. You can always edit things out and post if it does it makes sense, or if it's too long of a tangent, but you never know what kind of nugget you might get, letting the the conversation brief, letting an interviewee like tell this story that maybe you don't have it on your list. It's

the time. So don't beat yourself up over it, but there is a really fine line to walk when you're trying to make a show for your audience, but then you're also willing to go off on a tangent, but you've got to be able to bring it back, and you've got to be able to ask follow up questions that are relevant to the question that you just asked While still listening to what they're saying and still keeping a general overview in mind of what the topics you want to cover again

in the future and so, or maybe it's a you know, questions you know later on in the interview, or something like that. But is a, it's almost a dance where you're, you're dancing with the guest, and sometimes you're going to nail it, and sometimes you're not, like I, I had a guest recently that it was like pulling teeth to get her to answer, you know, a question full force and give some personnel. I could tell she was

nervous. I could tell, you know, as I know, it was one of her first interviews she's ever done. And then she finally started hitting the stride about 20 minutes in, but then the conversation itself is probably only going to be 30 minutes long, so the last, like, 10 minutes are great, but it took a little while to get there. So I think that that's also something that, you know, I'm I'm thinking back in my head of, like, how could I have gotten her comfortable much more quickly?

And I just, you know, sometimes you nail it and sometimes you don't, and sometimes it's your fault, and sometimes it's just the guest is too damn nervous or and it's just not going to turn out in your favor. So don't beat yourself up too much over it, but there are little tweaks that you can kind of learn from some of these folks that have been in

the game for a long time. I really like to study when an interview kicks off in the first question that people ask, I want to know what that first question is going to be and why. And nine times out of 10 is probably going to be what's your career background. But I love kicking off a conversation where it's a random question, you know, pulling a page from Dan Patrick's book, pulling a random question out. You know, tell me about your your latest League of

Legends game. You know, seeing, I'm addicted to seeing someone's face light up that they can't wait to talk about something. And I think that what's I'm always trying to get to in in every interview, in every conversation,

rather than call and response. I want to close this out by asking you, do you have any go to questions that you keep in the back pocket, or you kind of like always ask, because I've been I feel like I've built a I guess part of my interview brand is that I do have like, one or two go to questions that I always ask. The first one being, what was your first conscious

exposure to comic books? What was the one that made you a fan, which kind of opens up and gives the interview, in my case, on my show the opportunity to talk about, usually, their childhood or, you know, a parent or someone that gave them a comic and got them. Into it. And then my second one is always, if you had the opportunity to go back in time and give yourself a piece of advice that would have made breaking into whatever the industry or becoming a writer a lot easier, that no one else

told you what would it be? And you know, a lot of times, for the most part, I get a lot of general advice, but sometimes that encourages like, Oh man, I wish someone would have told me this, because I got into this situation and, you know, I had to learn this big lesson. Do you have any, I guess, go to questions? So I'll

number one. I'm I've never been asked those questions before, and he asked those pretty much off the jump, and it's such a great couple of questions, because it really allowed, I think the reason he was asking them is I want to understand what makes you tick, and a lot of what makes you tick is formed in your formidable years, in your high school years, and also

by your parents. So I am stealing those questions to be able to have, you know, I have a list of what I call the relatable eight I used to ask them in every episode, because, again, the industry I'm in, these people haven't done a lot of interviews. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get them to have a personality on camera.

But I do have, what's eight questions that I would ask a guest, and I would say a couple of these that really still stick out, that I would probably still use what's your favorite social media platform and why? Because you would be surprised at how many times people love to talk shit about other social media platforms. They have their one. What I found is that they usually have their one, and they love to talk trash about the others, and why the one they're

on is the best. So I love that question, what's your favorite SAS, tool that you use every day and can't live without, which is still, you know, a little bit more techy, then what's one thing you have ridiculously high standards for? Mine would be like sweet tea. That ridiculously high standards, and that opens up a window of conversation that you can learn something about someone that you wouldn't really know. A couple

of other ones here. What is a book or podcast that change your perspective on something that you used to think emphatically believe? Guilty pleasure TV or movie? I think is the last one I'll mention, because I think

it's it. It allows someone to showcase their fandom in a way that you know well, maybe with your pod, your style of podcast, you probably already know the answer to that, but for someone in logistics that they are telling me their favorite show is, like, I don't know, Maury Povich, that's going to be a little bit more fun to talk about and open the conversation with, or even end the conversation with, because you know, for a lot of These folks, that they leave the conversation

feeling really good, there's a higher likelihood that when the interview drops, that they're going to share it with their audience.

interviews. So I think if I was to dilute it into, you know, one core principle, it sounds like it, tell me if you're Greek, is the faster that you could build trust and a connection, and, you know, kind of eliminate, you know, the tense wall of being two strangers talking about each other, the better they interview. You know, like letting the conversation breathe, going of the flow,

coming prepared. I think I just want to reiterate that coming prepared, like, be aware of who you're interviewing, what

where? And it goes back to sometimes, letting, you know, going down a rabbit hole where I will write down a quick keyword that they've said that I'm like, oh, that actually, let me go. Let me get some more info on that. But I don't want to mess up this train of thought, right? Like I always want to, you take me down and I'll, I'll pull this

back out if we need to. But you know, having a quick, a quick little reference sheet where, because, you know, sometimes it's like, oh, this is not the right opportunity to jump in here. They're on a good train of thought. But that's really interesting. You know, keeping something quick that you can quickly access. Love

promote the show. And it the time stamp is, is my life saver, because you're doing so many things and to your point, you don't want to interrupt the guest when they're they're on a roll and they're making that's probably another tip we should tell people, do not interrupt your guest when they are speaking passionately about something. Let them get all of that out and write down the timestamp from it, because it's probably going to make a really great social

section. In the YouTube comment section, I swear one day I'll get outro. Spotify his comments now too, for episode, we just want to hear from you. Alright, care if it's on YouTube, Spotify. It's Texas fan mail. If you're listening to their podcast, we want to know, all right, we want to know that you're listening. And I know we're talking other podcasters. All right. Big shout out to Al Pete, who showed love on the JP Facebook group. Big shout outs to Robbie from straight

chilling. I know you guys are listening. All right, so anyways, let us know what you think, and if you got any tips and tricks for interviews, it's been a long day of recording, folks, and this is the last one we record for today. But that being said, thank you for hanging out with us. Thank you for watching, for listening. We appreciate it, and we'll catch you around next time. All right. Peace. You.