Podcast Pitching Mistakes -- from a Host's Perspective

concept. We actually have so many previous episodes, and I'm gonna link to in today's show notes all about this topic. But whenever I see so many, and I'm talking about so many bad podcast pitches, and I know there's a good chunk of this audience that you're like, Oh, I want to get on more podcasts. And I'm going to have myself or my team pitch all these podcasts. Time out, we need to talk about it, because there's some really bad things happening. And I'm saying no, probably 90

more times than I'm saying. Yes. So let's address all these today. And let's get right to it. Welcome to the profit podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to start launch and market their podcast. I'm your host, Krystal Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting think of this show as the time saving shortcut you've been looking for so let's get right to it shall we?

you're like a good behind the scenes. My vision for this episode was I was gonna go back and read y'all the really bad pitches that I've gotten in the past that I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is so bad. I would never have this person on my show and like of course I would leave there leave them all anonymous you wouldn't know who they were I was gonna do I don't even have them because I have

deleted them. That's how bad they are. Okay, let me just give you a little insight into my inbox my email inbox it's terrible it really is like this is something I know I admitted it maybe I'm it's like a self fulfilling prophecy me saying that my email inboxes so bad. I finally got a handle on it. I came up with a system that works much better for me, but it's still terrible I need to go and unsubscribe from like 50,000 newsletters that I'm attached to anyway okay, that's that's another

topic for another day. But I don't delete a lot of messages right? I have Gmail I rely heavily on the fact that I can just go and like search for what I'm looking for. Which is probably another topic right? should be more organized all of you. I know there are several virtual assistants in the audience and you're just cringing right now at all the things that I'm saying or maybe you're just type a person and you're you're scratching right now because of all the things that I'm saying. I'm

sorry, I'm just being honest. Okay, I'm just telling you like it is. If you come to my Monday mail, it's it's a hot mess. It is a hot mess, but it's funny, because I don't typically delete a lot of stuff. That's the point I'm trying to make. I often don't delete really bad emails. I just don't look I don't open them. I don't look at them. I'm like oh, that's another loser newsletter. I don't care instead of unsubscribing I just scroll past

it. But when someone sends me podcast guest right that's usually what is in the title that's not a bad thing. Okay, we're going to talk about the bad things in the good things don't worry we're going to we're going to In this episode, I promise it's not going to be all doom and gloom and all the mistakes I am going to offer some helpful advice as well as some fantastic resources I can't wait to share with you. But I was searching for in like my Gmail podcast guest and I couldn't find any of

these bad ones because I deleted them. That's how bad they were. I normally don't go out of my way. But if you like you're, I'm like trying not to get heated like I'm like physically. I'm still up for this episode, this is another behind the scene I'm actually I'm physically standing up because I knew that I needed to use my hands to make all the hand gestures and movements. Because I'm like, I'm at the pulpit today, y'all I am preaching. I'm preaching about bad podcast pitching mistakes from

a host perspective. Okay, and I know this isn't going to be blanket across the board for everybody and all podcast. So this is what you do, because I know several y'all listening this podcast, and this is what you do for yourself or your clients, like you're sending out these pitches. Just don't, don't, don't do the things that I'm about to tell you. Okay. Okay, we're just, we're just all gonna agree. Puts Put your right hand up, raise your

right hand. I don't care if you're walking the dog, you're on a run, whatever you're doing, you're folding your laundry, stop for a second. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. Okay. Are you ready? Are people looking at you? Like you're a weirdo? It's okay. It's okay. I mean, I'm in my office by myself. No one can see me. Maybe you're out in public. If you're driving, please don't take your hands off the wheel. Thank you. That's my disclaimer, please don't sue me. Okay.

Put your right hand up and say, I will not create bad podcast pitches. Say with me one more time. I will not create bad podcast pitches. Okay, now like this is our solemn oath to each other.

what she gonna say, what are the bad things? If you send me an email, to have a guest on my show to be a guest on my show, and all you do is talk about your self, or the person that you're pitching. It's an automatic, no, automatic, no, I'm sorry. Like, I draw a line in the sand. I actually just made me think of another podcast episode I'm gonna link to in the show notes. I'm going to add it to my notes right here. It's how to be selective with the podcast guests. Like if

you need help setting boundaries. I'm like literally typing it into my notes right now. Cuz I don't want to forget, that's a really, really good one. That if you have issues with boundaries, I have very hard, hard stops hard nosed, these type of people will not be on my podcast. And I don't care what they have done. I have people emailing me telling me that they're on the Inc 500 list.

And they've made billions of dollars. And they have you know, number one, New York Times bestsellers, 10 times in a row, like all these incredible things, I have all these people. And that's not to like toot my own horn and be like, Oh, you know, you probably get these pitches, too, because people it's very attractive to guests on other podcast, I get it, I understand why I'm getting these emails. But for the love of God, please stop just talking about yourself or the

person you're representing. You're not adding any value to the conversation. It's almost like meeting that person at a dinner party. Okay, the holidays are up in the next few months. And I've got like, the last quarter of the year on my brain, like planning wise, and I'm imagining going to a holiday party, right? And you're meeting somebody, for the very first time. You've never met this person. Maybe you kind of know who they are. Right? Maybe you've heard about them. It's

your husband's cousin, sister's best friend. I don't know just some some random person, right? You don't really know who they are. And you walk up and you introduce yourself. You say Hi, I'm Crystal. You don't say anything else. And then they say Hi, I'm Susan and I own a fortune 500 company and I have a number one New York Times bestseller I have a million dollars that I just like it's in my back pocket and I am so fantastic.

And I know that we could be best friends. That's a hard stop, run away, like run the other direction. If somebody said that to me, I would literally pull out my phone like, Oh, I'm sorry. The babysitter's calling me. I gotta go like, you know, or oh my gosh, I had way too much coffee earlier, I have to run to the restroom. Sorry. And I would get out of that conversation as quickly as possible. Right? Like That is, it feels very narcissistic to me. And that's the way that it

comes off. Now, is that their intention? I don't know. I don't think that it is. I really, truly don't. I don't believe that these people are trying to be narcissistic, I think that they're trying to impress you. Right? Because maybe they know that she's getting a whole bunch of podcast guests like we need it, we got to Wow, her, we got to make sure that this podcast host knows that you're worth talking to or that this guest could change the course of their show, blah, blah, blah,

blah. If you're just talking about yourself, I don't care. I don't care. Because at the end of the day, I care about my audience. I don't even care about me, right? Like I don't even care. I mean, obviously, it's got to be a good conversation. But there's even some guests that I have reluctantly said yes to, because I knew that my audience would love to hear from them. Okay, so

I will, I will grin and bear it for y'all. Okay, and I'm not going to tell you, like you're already wondering, like, oh, who she talked about, I'm not gonna tell you, okay, I'm not gonna call myself out. But I'm just gonna go ahead and say, I will grin and bear it for this audience, if I know the content is going to be that good. Okay, let me just throw that out there. If you're just gonna

talk about yourself, I don't care. I'm like I'm protective of it's kind of like a mama bear being protective of her cubs, like, I'm protective of someone that just wants to come on this podcast and talk about themselves. And that's the first impression that I get if in your email in your pitch, all you're doing is saying, Hi, I'm amazing, and I'm fantastic. And you're just your life is going to be changed once you meet me.

Sorry, I don't care about any of that. I really don't, that doesn't sound like you're going to be very helpful to my audience, it sounds like you're going to come onto my podcast, and just talk about yourself, not add any value and possibly bore my audience. Because there's not actually going to be any dialogue, it's just going to be you talking, I feel like I should just hand my microphone over to you and let you do all the talking. Which then is

going to happen either. So yeah, so that's the first and foremost you all, that's only number one. Point number one. Do not talk about yourself, okay? And if you're looking for like, oh, if I, you know, I just started my podcast, I'm gonna be looking for guests soon. This is number one, don't, I would not even invite people like into your inbox, if all they're gonna do is talk about themselves. Go back and listen to the episode about how to be selective with your podcast

guests. That is a really, really good one. Okay, number two, this isn't necessarily a bad pitch, but it's going to get you closer to a no than a yes. Especially if I don't know who you are. Okay, I have gotten to the point where I don't really accept cold pitches, right, someone I've never heard of, I don't know who they are, or someone that I like, don't have any kind of connection

with. I mean, I just I've gotten very selective and we're gonna talk about that, because we're going to talk about good pitches here in a second. But I can do that with my show. I can be more selective because I'm not desperate to find an interview every single week, there was a time where y'all like I said, I'm not gonna call out I'm not going to call out the interviews that I'm talking about. But there have been some where I'm like, What did I say yes to? Why, why is this

conversation happening? And how do I get out of it as quickly as possible? It's happened. Okay, we are at this point, almost at 300 podcast episodes, there have been some bad ones. Okay, I'm just I'm just gonna throw it out there. I'm gonna say it about my own show. I don't want you to spread that message. Don't tell other people that there are bad ones. But you know, you know, okay, now it's, it's out there. We have said this, collectively,

we agree. Yes. Okay. All of that to say, what will get you a know faster is if you do not include any kind of talking points or topics that we could potentially talk about.

what does that look like? What what? How is it going to make me immediately say, Oh my gosh, like, boom, here's my link done. And there's only a few where it happens almost every single time. They reach out to me. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, like, Yes, here, take my link, get them on the calendar. And some of them, they already have my link. And I'm like, here, do you need this? Again, I've already sent this to you multiple times. Because there's some agencies that I work with

that do this so well. So well, we're I don't even have to read the whole email, y'all. I don't read them, even if you choose to send long emails, and I'm going to talk about an episode that you definitely need to go back and listen to. But whether it's long, or whether it's short, I need to have some idea of what you're envisioning. So let's go back to the first point, right? If you're just going to talk about your guests, and how incredible they are, maybe they would be a great

fit for my audience. And I do get that allow people like, oh, they'd be a great fit. And I'm like, yeah, on the surface, I can see that. But I need I need more information. And I don't want to go back and forth, three or four times and say, Oh, yeah, I've heard of them. They would be a good fit. What could we talk about? And then they come back and they say, Oh, well, we could talk about

this, this and this. What do you think? And then I have like, there's so many exchanges of emails, I want it to be a one stop shop, where if you're gonna send me a pitch, it better be good. So I can say yes, here's my link. That is literally the like, I'm thinking of, you know, the Oh, like gold at the rainbow moment of like, what does a successful podcast pitch look like? For me? It's when someone can send me something, I immediately say, Yes, they are the perfect fit for my

audience. These are the topics I would love to talk about. Here's my scheduling link. Done. That is how I like for the process to look now. Is that easy? No, it's really not because you can't just like throw everything together. And it happened

that way. And it's not something that you can copy and paste, like I said, I'm going to talk about, we're going to get into the details of some previous podcast episodes on this show that you can go back to listen to, to explore how to create a really good podcast pitching system or a great way to personalize and customize a podcast. guesting experience for yourself. But I want to go

back to talking points, okay. Even if this is a very, very big deal, even if I don't like all of the talking points, I will usually find some sort of way like I was actually looking at a good pitch, like a good example. And there's one company in particular, I had like five different talking points for this one guess that they were trying to get me to come onto the show that five points. And I was like, I don't like that one. I don't like that one. Oh, that one's good. Oh, that

one's good, too. So sometimes I will do a combination of the things that they've put on there that I'm like, Oh, we could talk about this, because that person's obviously already comfortable talking about it. And I know my audience would want to hear that because I know my

audience, right? The person that's representing this guest or the guests themselves, they may not have this intimate connection with mine, because it's my audience like y'all are my people, I know what you want, they are not going to know you as well as I do. But I would know if I saw five options. I could say, Oh, no, they would definitely not care about this. They don't want that, oh, they want to know about these two things. We'll add those to the mix to see what I'm

saying. If someone doesn't include topics or talking points, I can immediately say, yes. So for me, like I said, it's not a total deal breaker, but it is a quality of a pitch that I'm not likely to say yes to. Okay, those are the two biggest things that I've seen recently. Now let's come to, let's like, turn this around. Okay, let's go into the good pitches. And what I have seen, that's worked really well in the last probably six to 12

months of where I've said yes to more people. The first thing is including audio clips of previous guessing spots, right? So if you are linking in an email, you're like, Oh, you know, here's my guest. Here's our talking points where you could talk about and here's a previous clip, whether you want to include an audio clip, that's fantastic. I don't I don't care I'll play those or you want to link to a specific podcast episode now. You're

gonna get a lot more like. Like the probability of me clicking on it is if it's a more well known podcast now I know that's not really fair. That isn't favorable. One who hasn't been on a big podcast or someone who you know, is just getting started, you're like, I don't, I haven't been on a big podcast, whatever podcasts you've been on is fantastic. Okay, I'm just gonna say that like, whatever proof, it's like your proof of concept,

right? It's like your ticket to get in as like, oh, they've been on the podcast before I can go listen to see, you know, if you're someone that's unknown, I've never heard of you, you know, do I actually want you on the show? I want to go hear a piece of content that you've created. But if you have been on a big podcast, put it in there, it gets my attention. And it's like, okay, she's been on this podcast, I'm more more likely to say yes.

Like the chances of me saying Yes, go up, and up and up, the more credibility you build for yourself. So you could link to a previous like, Instagram Live or Facebook Live that you've done, you could link to a YouTube video, I don't really care what type of content you'd like to, but it's some piece of content that helps me connect with the vibe of the person, because I can tell you pretty quickly, whether I would actually want to

have a conversation with you. And I know that may sound harsh, that may sound like well, Crystal, don't you want to talk to everybody? Let's just be really honest. Right? Like you've had those conversations at a conference at a coffee shop. Like when you're out when you're doing stuff at your kids school? Oh my gosh, can we really talk about that for a second, right? Like you're, you're at a PTO meeting or you know, it's a kid's

party, or it's a sporting event? Whatever it is, you'll get into conversations, you're like, Oh my gosh, how am I gonna get out of that? Like, I'm gonna blame this on my bladder, right? And it's okay, you can blame it on your bladder all you want. It's what I do like, and if I tell you if we meet in person, I'll tell you, I have to go to the bathroom, I will most likely tell you, Hey, I gotta pee. Not Oh, sorry, I have to run to the restroom. That's more of like my formal, so Okay,

just remember this, right? Don't take it personally, if I say I gotta go pee. That's our informal conversation. But if I tell you I got to go the restroom. I don't know. That's kind of my owl. That's kind of my like, I'm sneaking away from this conversation. It's a little too rough for me. Okay, so there's our keywords now, you know, now you know, okay, so some piece of content that will get you to know the vibe of the person very, very helpful. A one sheet, this is another

thing, that's a good pitch. And I'm going to tell you, the company that does this really, really well. You can do this as an actual PDF. I do like this. I like a clickable PDF, where it's a total one sheet about who the person is what they've done. It's the it's the highlight reel, right? It's the sizzle reel, in a very simple PDF that has their social media links that has maybe their website, it has previous episodes they've been on

it has all the things it's very, very helpful. One sheets are awesome, and anybody can create one of those very easy to do. But at the very, very least, have social media links, you must include

social media links in a podcast pitch. But first and foremost, the previous podcast guessing spots, like social media stuff, all of that is going to be clicked on by me, that would be something I would click on a previous podcast episode or Facebook Live or ID live or YouTube before anything else, because I want to know who this person is, and if they're going to be right for my podcast, okay, now, the moment you've been waiting for, right?

my people. You know them. They've been on the podcast and I'm going to link to all the different podcast episodes that I've done with them. So first and foremost, because she's been on the show she is the only person who's been on the show three times I record three times and that's my girl make a saying? So she really helps people

become visible. I love how in the last probably 12 months she's really shifted more into visibility, so not just podcast guesting but the term visibility comes up a lot more in her content, but she is someone who you have three podcast episodes to go listen to and if you want to hear more like we did one great episode where we're just going back and forth like we don't get a lot of like ranting Enos on well I guess I do some ranting.

Typically I don't do that with my guests. But we did do that in one episode we're just like oh my gosh you know what really grinds my gears you know it really bothers me if we just went on and on and on about what is most likely to get a hard pass a hard No, whenever people send them to us and she if you go back to the very first episode we did together she pitched 101 podcast in 2019 and we talked about it we talked about what the process was like so all the things that she does I'm gonna

link to her Instagram as well where you can go follow her but make a saying she is incredible, especially if you're going like the DIY route, right? You want to do this for yourself or you want to train a virtual assistant to do this to

help you. She is definitely the route to go. And then I want to give a shout out to my girl Angie Trueblood and her team because they do a fantastic job at podcast guest pitches I know several people on her team and anytime I see one of their emails come through most of the time it's a yes like and usually if it's a no it's like a conflict valic we can't align our schedules together so it's like more like a Not right now situation it's not usually oh no this isn't gonna work out for me

like they do their research they're very thorough in really presenting their clients to me as a podcast host and I love that now we're on a first name like I know several members of her team and I can call them out and I can be like hey, you know Courtney, what's up Hey Kim, you know like I know people on her team and we have this connection this friendly banter that happens back and forth of like, hey, oh, you know you love this one person I think that you would love this person

because we understand it just shows that they care because they understand what I'm looking for in a guest they've already done their work right? When you create those custom pitches to really get to know your host it pays off because not only do I want to accept the first pitch right and Angie and I had a fantastic conversation I'm gonna link to

her podcast episode as well. I don't think I told you all the Show Notes for this episode are KrystalProffitt.com/Episode294 is where you're going to find all of these great resources but I'm gonna link to an episode than Angie and I did that was so helpful we're talking about I'm actually going to see her in just a few short weeks we're going to meet in person in real life at she

podcasts live. I'm so excited. We're going to brainstorm and chat and have all the all the great ideas whenever we get to see each other but I just really love their team. So if you're looking at how I could get on more podcast, they are someone you should absolutely go and check out. The other person. The other company and team I want to mention is interview valet. Now this is Tom and his wife, Karen, the Schwab's over there, they do

a fantastic job with the one sheets. They're the ones I was talking about earlier, who they will send over this beautiful one sheet of their guests in it talks about who they are, what they represent what they're all about. It's like the highlight reel of who all these guests are, and I can identify really quickly. They would be a perfect match for the show or not right now or Ooh, let's take two or three of these topics and

blend them all together and then talk about it. So they are another really awesome company that I've worked with in the past and I'm going to link to Tom's episode that we did on the podcast and it's funny because every time I say the word pitch I hear Tom in the back of my head he's like let's stop with the word pitch like it's not a good way to go about guesting on other shows like let's call it guesting on other shows and he probably even has a better way to say it but I know he like

does. he despises the word pitch and I've said it like 1000 times in this episode. Sorry, Dom if you listen to this, but another person that I want to give a shout out to is Kristin Molnar, at Yes boss VA. She was someone who came on to the podcast and added so much value talking about how to not only guest on podcasts that make those guest appearances profitable. So if you're looking at I want to guest on your podcast in 2022. I want to start laying the foundation laying a plan to make

that happen. Go check out listen to Kristen's episode because we talked about how not only to get on other people's podcasts, but how to make a profit how to actually go above and beyond. Instead of just hammering show up on this podcast. How can you make it work in your favor. Okay, and then of course, I talked about the episode how to be selective with your podcast guest. I mentioned that many times, if you need help setting boundaries, okay, and for all of you that are just

launching, right? If you just started listening to this podcast, if you're brand new to me, please listen up. I am a big fan of boundaries. And I want to tell you as a brand new podcaster, you will get pitched, you will get emails, you will get people reaching out to you saying, hey, I want to be on your podcast, y'all. I got an email to my personal email the other day, oh my gosh, this is the one I should have brought up. But now we're wrapping things up. I'm not gonna get it out and

read it now. But someone sent an email to my personal email. And it was for my potty report podcast. This is my daily show. My daily show that is a solo only podcast, there are almost 400 episodes, and I have never once had a guest. It is just me talking for five minutes or less, Monday through Friday. And this person sent me a pitch, right? They sent me an email that was like, we love your potty report podcast, we would love to be a guest on your show this person and Mike, do

you not realize this is just me. It is just me talking. There's never been a guest there will never be a guest it is five minutes or less. We can't I can't even hardly finish the thought in five minutes. Why? No, no, no, no, no, no. So I have hard boundaries around what I will accept. And if you need help setting those go listen that episode about how to be selective with your guests. Because if you're just launching just

wait, it doesn't matter. There's no like, oh, once you hit this many downloads, you'll get the pitches. No, you as soon as something happens whenever you launch your podcast, you get in to these people's databases and they're like, ooh, fresh podcast, I'm gonna go pitch them. And if it's not custom, if it's not personable to you, and if you just get that bad vibe, I'm such a believer in intuition and your gut feeling if you

just get a bad vibe. You can say no, you can apps like here, this is your permission slip to say no to the bad pitches that are just like so cringe worthy. You have to delete them because I get it. And we all get it.

with me, I want you to say it with me. Are you ready? Are you ready for it? Because we're gonna say it together just like we did with our right hand raised. Keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.