Simple Systems That Drive Success in Podcast Guesting | Patty Block

Every day, people give up on podcast guesting. Those who quit report that they didn't see results from being a guest, and the extra stress/demand on their time was not worth it. This one-and-done mindset toward podcast guesting will not get you far, but there is an alternative! In this episode, Patty Block shares how you can build a system around podcast guesting that reduces stress while maximizing results. Get ready to unleash the benefits of a podcast guesting system!

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Takeaways

Set clear goals for podcast guesting, such as building relationships with hosts, raising visibility, and developing reusable content.
Realize that a one and done strategy is not effective in podcast guesting.
Develop a system for podcast guesting that includes three stages: before, during, and after the interview.
Pay attention to the after stage, as it can be the most powerful in terms of promoting the episode and engaging with the audience.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:28 Goals of Podcast Guesting
01:25 Realization of One and Done Strategy
02:23 Building a System for Podcast Guesting
03:50 Three Stages: Before, During, and After
05:15 The Power of After the Interview
06:13 Developing Content from the Recording
07:39 Collecting and Filing the Recording
08:09 Editing the Recording
09:09 Setting Standards for Video Clips
11:02 Distributing the Video Clips
13:55 Engaging with Podcast Hosts and Network
15:22 Benefits of a Systematic Approach
16:05 Conclusion

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Transcript

0:02

You're listening to Podcasting Made Simple. I'm your host, Alex Sanfilippo. For this episode's guide and resources, please visit podpros.com slash 270. And now let's get to the episode. How can you make your podcast guesting even more effective? Well, that's what we're going to talk about today about building a system around your podcast guesting that hosts will love. and will make your guesting life a dream. I'm Patti Block, and I really grappled with this question when I first started guesting on shows. I wanted to be very effective in what I was doing, and I had three goals. Build a relationship with the podcast host, raise the visibility of my company, and develop content that I could use over and over. Do you have similar goals? Well, if so, here's some good news. What I'm going to share with you is a strategy of building a system that you can use to do exactly that and will accomplish all three goals. Lots of podcast guests show up, answer questions, and kind of hope for the best. But that one and done strategy won't get you very far. So I realized that early on, and maybe you've already experienced that. So I had really high hopes for especially the first show. that I went on many years ago. And I kept thinking about it and kind of dreaming, well, I'm gonna be on this show and they're gonna promote it and I'm gonna get all these calls. And of course, we all know that's not how this works. And I recall that first show was based in Australia and I'm in Texas. So just the time zone difference was daunting. Once we did the interview, it really went great. And the host did a great job, not only of leading the interview, but of promoting it later. And even so, it was crickets. You know, there was really no response that I saw to that interview. And it made me reevaluate what it was that I was working to accomplish, especially because I was putting so much time and energy into setting up, interviewing, and then, of course, figuring out what to do. after the interview and how to promote that. So that's what I wanna talk about today. When I talk about a system, a system is a series of steps that you can refine and repeat. So you might think of it as a checklist and you might even wanna develop a checklist that you use for all the different phases of being a podcast guest. So for example, you can start with what you're currently doing when you... reach out to podcast hosts, or you use a system like PodMatch, which I also use, and that streamlines things because so much of PodMatch is automated. So having a system ahead of time where you figure out which shows you want to appear on and who you want to talk with, is their audience your audience? It's very important. But I think more importantly is, is the host... aligned and do they run a show that also aligns with what you're talking about and what you want to accomplish. So at the beginning, you're searching out those shows, you're applying or talking to the host and you're setting up. So you already have a system around setting up those guesting spots. What you may be missing is how you prepare and what you do after the interview. So think of it as three stages, before, during, and after. The before phase, as I said, you're probably already doing, and you already have a system around that. The during phase is about preparing for the interview, making sure you have your talking points. And a lot of times, we feel as though we have to create something new, some new concept or new description for every interview. And that's not the case because remember that there are so many podcasts, your message is so widely distributed when you're on different shows. And so it's very unlikely that the same person is going to hear your message more than once. And because of that, having a core message is really important. That's what you become known for. So keep that in mind. You don't have to create something new for every interview. But what you do want is to have that core message that you talk about all the time. And I will tell you after years of doing this, I get to the point where sometimes I'm tired of talking about those particular topics. Do it anyway. Because again, there are people out there who need to hear your message, and they aren't necessarily listening to the podcast that you're on. So now we have the before and the during. After the interview is what most people neglect. And that can be the most powerful. A lot of people don't listen to podcasts live. You don't have to because they're recorded. So a lot of people, and I know I'm one of them, I will go back and binge listen to a podcast that I'm interested in. And that's, I think, where the magic really is. How that episode is promoted, by whom, if the host is doing a good job promoting it, if you're promoting it, if you're sharing it with your network, and also, Who else is hearing that and sharing it? So all of those methods can compound the people who get your message. So when we talk about a system, and I'm gonna focus on the after the interview, that is an area where you can do several things. Remember I talked about developing content that I can use over and over. So my system is that I look at developing two-minute clips from the recording, and using those in many, many different ways to not only promote my company and my message, but to promote the podcast host and their podcast. And very few people do this, so the podcast hosts are surprised and thrilled when you ask for the recording. So let's start from the beginning. When we talk about what do you do after the interview? There are three steps that I use and works really well for me. Start by collecting the recording. Then you want to edit and refine that recording, and then distribute. So let's take those one at a time. Ahead of time, before the interview, I ask the host, either by email or if I am talking with them, maybe they're doing a pre-interview visit, I ask them ahead of time, would it I had the recording after the session so that I can download it. I then make clips and will promote your podcast. So I'm very transparent. I tell them exactly what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I've never had a podcast host say no. They're always surprised and very pleased. I think they're a little curious, wondering if I'm really going to do that, but I do. So that's the collecting piece. Once you get the video, you need to download it and then file it and have a filing system. Mine is in Dropbox and I have a folder for each podcast host by their name. And the reason I do that is because I'm very unlikely to remember the name of the podcast, but I will always remember the name of the host. So all of my recordings are filed in that way. I then go into the editing engaged a video editor, a professional video editor, through one of the platforms, Upwork or Fiverr. These are very low cost people who are freelancers and have a great deal of expertise. So that's what I did many years ago is I reached out, I interviewed and I found a video editor that has continued to work for me all these years. He's doing a great job. He takes the video from the interview. and he chops it up into two minute clips. He sends me those raw clips, I review them, I add a title for each clip, and my titles are always a question that relate to the content of the clip. And don't worry if your clips are a little bit longer than two minutes. If people are interested, they'll watch them. And if they're not interested, it doesn't matter how long it is. So I have some that are five minutes because I had a point to make. And it doesn't make sense to edit the video to be shorter. And if people don't watch it, that's OK. It still raises the visibility of my company. In the editing stage, you want to set some standards around what you want those video clips to look like. So for example, you want to use your brand colors. You want to use your logo, your name, the podcast host name, and the name of the podcast. All of those things will create a standard format. Not only does that make it more uniform and tie into your brand directly, but it also is simpler and more cost effective because your video editor is always gonna use that same framework, that same standard. So once you have that and it looks the way you want it to, it sounds the way you want it to, then you can take those clips, add the title, which in my case is always a question, like, are you eating the broken cookies? I have a concept called the broken cookie effect. So that is to raise people's curiosity and then they can watch the video. Remember that it's very important that your video editor add captioning, not only to be inclusive, I mean, that is important, but also some enormous number of people watch video with no sound. So be sure that you have those captions so that people can watch your video without sound and still get your message. Once you have that format and your video editor starts pulling out those clips from your interview, then you'll want to go back and review them, make sure they look right and sound right, and then decide how you're gonna use them. So this now takes us from the collection phase through the editing phase into the distribution phase. And this is really the fun part. Yes, you can use them on social media and they're super effective. You'll write a brief post. And what I do is I write a brief post, typically with a question, then I use hashtags related to the content or what I think people are searching for. And then I have a link that goes to the entire interview that's posted on my website. So that means I'm also driving traffic to my website and all of my interviews are in one place on a media page. So one of the things that I find really effective and important is that I'm very consistent in what I'm doing and the look is consistent, the sound, the appearance, the message, everything is consistent. And I think that's really important so that the you don't look haphazard and the listener or the person who is consuming your content gets a sense of who you are, the work that you do, and how you're effective. And consistency is a really important part of that. You can also post those clips on YouTube and the benefit of doing that is that it improves the search engine optimization on your website when you link it back to your website. So there are lots of behind the scenes things that benefit you in having all these clips as opposed to one interview that's maybe 40 minutes long. You now have maybe 10 two minute clips that you can use over and over. You can use them in your email newsletter, in of course social media on all the platforms. You can also use them. when you are promoting yourself for other podcasts. So you might send one as an example to the host of your speaking style. So there's so many ways that you can use that. And now I have thousands of clips to use over and over. And the ones that I find are not as effective or maybe I don't like the way I came across when I was saying something, I just remove that one and don't use it again. So you have a lot of choices and latitude in how you're using these clips. Every time I post on social media, I'm also tagging the podcast host. I'm also sharing it with my network. So the host can see that I really did what I said I was gonna do. I made the clips, I posted them, I'm promoting their podcast, and often they're commenting and we're starting more engagement. by doing that. So as I mentioned, the podcast hosts are surprised and happy and really think this is great, and I get more engagement, more visibility. And so again, it accomplishes those three goals of building a great relationship with the host who may ask me back, but he or she may also refer me to other podcast hosts. It also develops all that content that I can reuse. and it raises the visibility of my company. So again, it does all three things. So keep in mind, this is a very simple, cost-effective strategy, and I post regularly. So for me, I post three times a week with these clips and have been doing that very consistently for a long time. So I get lots of impressions. Mostly I'm posting on LinkedIn because that's where my audience is, but. have an outsourced marketing company that is posting on all of the major platforms. And so most of my engagement is on LinkedIn, but I'm visible on the other platforms. So again, a very simple cost-effective strategy that once you get these steps in place and maybe you have a checklist, it's easy to follow and it becomes a habit. And the more you do it, the better results you will start to see. So Think about what are your goals for being a podcast guest? How can you make it as effective as possible? And using that system of all the steps that you do before the interview, during the interview, and after the interview will make you a very sought after guest, will raise the visibility of you, your message, and your company, and will make all that time and energy that you're investing. really worthwhile. Thank you. If you enjoyed this episode, please visit podprose.com slash 270. Then share the link with one person that you believe it would add value to. Until next time, thank you for listening.