Podcast guesting has become one of the most significant exposure-gaining opportunities in the digital world. Because of this, people are flocking to the medium. Unfortunately, most people end up making costly mistakes while being interviewed. In this episode, Mark Herschberg shares 3 tips to help you stand out as a podcast guest. Mark explains that by avoiding visuals, keeping content evergreen, and not talking over hosts, you'll step into a further level of guesting mastery. Get ready to start winning more as a podcast guest!
00:00:11 - Introduction, 00:00:28 - Avoid Using Visuals 00:02:10 - Be Explicit with Visual Examples 00:03:52 - Create Evergreen Content 00:07:27 - Never Speak Over the Host 00:09:51 - Editing Tips
Timestamped Summary:
00:00:11 - Introduction Mark Hirschberg shares his experience appearing as a podcast guest in over 350 episodes and introduces the three basic tips for giving a great episode as a guest.
00:00:28 - Avoid Using Visuals Mark explains why visuals may not work well for podcasts, as some listeners may be visually impaired or accessing the podcast without video. He also highlights that people often listen to podcasts while driving or exercising, making visual content inconvenient or inaccessible.
00:02:10 - Be Explicit with Visual Examples If visual examples are necessary, Mark advises being explicit and describing them rather than relying on slides or visuals. He suggests using air quotes as an example and explicitly mentioning it for audio-only listeners.
00:03:52 - Create Evergreen Content Mark emphasizes the importance of creating content that remains relevant even in the future. He encourages providing temporal context when discussing time-sensitive topics, such as mentioning specific dates or seasons, to ensure listeners understand the timing of the conversation.
00:07:27 - Never Speak Over the Host Mark advises against talking over the host during podcast conversations, as it can be frustrating for listeners and difficult to edit. He suggests being differential and pausing if overlap occurs, allowing for smoother editing if needed.
00:09:51 - Editing Tips Mark shares two helpful editing tips: using clapping as an audio cue to indicate the need for a redo and visually marking the section with a piece of paper for
You're listening to Podcasting Made Simple. I'm your host, Alex Sanfilippo. For this episode's guide and resources, please visit podprosecom. And now let's get to the episode.
Speaker 2:
Hello, my name is Mark Fershberg. I've appeared as a podcast guest in over 350 episodes. Today I'm here to give you three basic tips to help you give a great episode as a guest. Don't use visuals. Now, I know sometimes we feel the visual is important to our brand, to our style. It really illustrates our point and that's great if you're doing a live talk in front of an audience. But it doesn't always work for podcasts and there's a few reasons for this. First, remember some of the audience might be visually impaired. We want to be inclusive, we want to be accessible to all the audience members. Second, note that many listeners are doing so audio only. They might be on a platform that doesn't have a video channel. Even if it's recorded in video, even if it's getting shared on YouTube or in other video channels, the host might also strip out the audio and have an audio only version. So some of your listeners may not even see the video, even if they do have access to the video. And I do know some hosts who have told me YouTube is our biggest channel. That's where we get most of our listeners. That's fantastic and they're using a visual medium, but that doesn't mean they're using a visual medium. We know many people listen to podcasts and even videos while they're driving, while they're exercising, they might be out for a run, and so, even though the video is available, they may not be in a place where it's convenient for them to watch. They just can't look at it because their eyes are focused elsewhere or it's just so tiny. If you're watching from your cell phone, say, I'm morning commute and you're holding up something small, how big is that going to appear on the cell phone? So when you are doing visual things we need to remember not everyone can see it If possible, avoid using visual examples.
Speaker 2:
If you feel you have to use one, if it is critical, then what you should do is be explicit and describe what you are doing. Now, what this means is you shouldn't be using slides, because remember what we've learned about slide presentations you don't want to sit there and read the slide to your audience. The people who can see it would then be really just bored, saying you're reading the slide, I can read it myself, but of course, the people who can't see it would say please read the slide, because I can't read it, and so you're never going to satisfy both audiences. That's why we don't want to use slides and we want to be extremely limited and careful in using any type of visual example while being a guest or host on a podcast. Now I did say maybe there's something where you feel it is visual, and of course we can think of things like air quotes. When people put a word in air quotes, in that case I just put the quotes around the word. But if you were listening, only you didn't see my fingers doing that. So if I'm going to do that, I want to be explicit when we use this word and I'm putting that in air quotes, then we can go do on something else. And so what just happened? Visual people did see me do the quotes, but those who were audio only heard me explicitly say I put that word in air quotes so they can follow along. So if you are doing something visual, make it very brief and be explicit about it. But better yet, no visuals and absolutely do not do slides. This is not a webinar, it's a podcast, so don't use any slides and limited visuals.
Speaker 2:
Second, your content should be evergreen. We naturally think about the conversation we're having here and now with the host this moment, but people are going to be listening to this episode potentially in the future and they might not have the same temporal context we do. You might be saying my book is coming out next week, or just last week the Fed raised interest rates. That is true the Fed at the time I'm recording this in 2023, but that might not be true when you're listening, in 2025. So we want to give an example that has the temporal context. So what I usually do when I'm talking well, when we're recording this now, at the end of the summer 2023, we're about one month away from my app release, and so now I'm giving you context and if you're hearing this, maybe the week after, you're saying, okay, the app isn't out yet. But when you're hearing it two years from now, you're saying, well, yes, it is. When I say, right now, the Fed has just raised interest rates and of course, we're talking about summer of 2023. Then when it's 2025 and they're lowering interest rates, you say, okay, I get, that was then. This is now.
Speaker 2:
Certain topics are very context sensitive. So, for example, I'm doing a lot of talks here in 2023 on artificial intelligence. This is an area where we're seeing a lot of dynamic change and what might be true one month, three months, later it's very different. So I'm always careful to give the timing of when I do it. Well, as we're talking about artificial intelligence and regulation here, when we're reporting in March of 2023, there's not a lot of regulations going on Now. I said March of 2023 or spring, or just some context. Because if you're listening in 2025, you might be thinking, well, there now is a lot of regulation going on, and if you didn't know that I was recording it, then you might think, well, this guy, he's out of touch, he doesn't know what he's talking about, but oh, he said 2023. So, of course, yes, I remember back then there wasn't much, and this way they have the context.
Speaker 2:
The only possible exception if you have something very explicit about, say, we're going to talk about this is an episode on the Oscar red carpet, 2023. And it might start out okay. Last night we had the Oscars in 2023. And what do you think of the fashion? Well, we're very clear about the context of this very time sensitive episode, but that's an exception.
Speaker 2:
Even if you're doing something which seems time relevant, it may not be. A good example would be when you're doing a podcast on movies or TV shows. You might have one where saying, oh, we're going to review the TV show that just came out last night. Think, well, of course it's obvious this is season three, episode eight. Everyone knows when that is, and they do, but they might be watching season three, episode eight, 10 years from now on some streaming service. So again, even though it feels like it's linked to a specific point in time unless it is objective, like the red carpet for the Oscars 2023. And you're very clear about the 2023, not just Oscar red carpet you want to be very explicit about the timing and that's just going to help everyone have the right context and feel connected and knowing when they should listen for something that is timely or when they can say, okay, right, that's not necessarily relevant at this time. It's going to be a better experience for everyone and it's going to make you look like a better and more inclusive and understanding guest.
Speaker 2:
Now, the third tip I want to give you is to never speak over the host and we're having a conversation. If it's not a very rigorous, formal, I'm going to ask you a question, you're going to give the answer. But more of a conversation, it can be easy, because we know when we have a regular conversation, a lot of podcasts do want that conversation, feel it can be easiest, start talking over each other, and for two people that's fine. But it can be a little frustrating to listeners and that is the one thing that we really can't edit. You can have long periods of silence and those can be added out. You can have, oh, you know what we forgot to add this to question number two, or what we said 10 minutes ago Can we put in one more sentence and with proper editing, that can be cut and moved around and that's okay.
Speaker 2:
But the one thing you can't do is take the overlapping conversation, those waveforms, and pull them out, unless you have some very high end equipment experience that most podcasts hosts don't. So in general, we want to all be differential and this goes for hosts as well as guests, who might be differential and try not to talk over each other. You might be thinking, oh, I have one of the podcast recording services where we have separate tracks and for separate tracks, well, that's okay, we can now pull them out and do one over the other or one or the other. But even then, you're right, you have separate tracks. You still may get some overlap because your voice is coming over my speakers and my mic might pick it up, and you can't depend on the fact that my software was good enough to figure out what's my voice versus yours. They're getting better at it, but don't count on it. So, in general, we don't want to speak over someone else. Speaking In general, be more quiet or, as you know, as you're starting to overlap each other, oz, because you can just add it in later.
Speaker 2:
Now, on a related note, if you are doing some editing, I'm going to give you two tips that I found really helpful, because often we do have to go back and find little clips and pull something out, or oh, I did that question wrong, can we redo it? And of course, a host is trying to make a note saying, okay, at 13 minutes or 28 seconds, I need to do this, and not all hosts remember that. So here's two really easy things you can do when you're doing the editing that you might need to do because you didn't speak over each other. First, clapping, say, okay, you know what, let's just redo what I said in the last minute. Okay, we're going to pause, I'm going to clap and then we'll redo it. And then I'm going to give you now my new answer and the reason I do the clap is because if you look on the audio waveform, you're going to see a little pause and then these three spikes.
Speaker 2:
It's a very clear visual indicator and that's a really great visual audio note about where you need to look and pay attention. It's like highlighting something when you're adding a document, but it's an audio visual version of that. Likewise, if you're doing more of video editing, something you can do is keep a piece of paper right by your desk and say you know what we need to redo a minute ago. So I'm going to put a visual cue so you can find it. I just held up a blue folder for about three seconds, but now, as you're going through the thumbnails, as you're looking at the file, you'll see all the sudden this big splash of blue. You go, oh, that's the spot. That's where you need to look. So it's a little like the clackers that they have when they're doing the movies, those old clackers, for those of you old enough to remember them. And this is what we can do. It's a very kind of poor man's version of it, but it's going to help us be easier when we're adding.
Speaker 2:
So remember the three tips that you should do as a guest and it also applies to hosts. First, no visuals. We want to be audio friendly and recognize not everyone can see the visuals that we include, so always be audio. First, if you have to do a visual, make sure you're very descriptive and really try to avoid it if you can Never do slides. Second, make your content evergreen by giving the contextual, temporal context in which you're describing this.
Speaker 2:
So I am recording this in the summer of 2023, and the technology might change in a few years. You probably didn't need to know that for this particular tip, but when you're talking about what's happening in the world, the state of an industry or even things you have like a book coming out, be sure to give the explicit objective time and not the relative time. And third, make sure you're not speaking over the host, because or, if you're the host, not speaking over the guest, because that's the hardest to pull out. We can add all sorts of things, we can cut things, we can slice things together, but we can't pull out the audio overlay of two people. If you remember those three things, you are on your way to having a great podcast episode.
Speaker 1:
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