How to Improve Your Chances of Being a Podcast Guest

I’m often asked if someone can be a guest on my show. Yeah! I’m so glad that people like the show and want to participate! So I thought I’d create this quick response, because the answer is… “maybe”. I’m always looking for good guests and I typically record six to eight weeks in advance. So here’s some tips for how you can improve your chances of being a podcast guest. I am going to talk about my show but these tips will help you with any other podcast, as well.

Tip number one, ask yourself why you want to be on my show. If you can’t answer that, then how can I answer whether or not you’d be a good guest? And to be clear, I’m not asking why you want to be a podcast guest in general. I’m asking why you want to be on my show in particular.

What sparked your interest in The Your Confident Self Podcast? You should have done a little bit of research because any show probably isn’t a good fit for you as a guest. So know why you want to be on my show specifically.

Tip number two, listen to the show you want to appear on. It helps the host if you know the show. If you make a generic request, we can see that a mile away. And guess what happens? We delete those requests.

The other day I got a request from someone who was pitching an expert on cryptocurrency. I don’t have any feelings about cryptocurrency one way or the other, but you know what? I don’t talk about cryptocurrency. As I sit here, I still don’t know what cryptocurrency has to do with confidence or career growth.

So it was very apparent to me that this person had never listened to my show. If you let me know that you have listened to the show, you get me, and you know what the show is about, that’s a big step toward improving your chances of being a podcast guest.

Tip number three, how can you add value to the show? Don’t misunderstand me, everybody has value. But what ‘special something’ will you bring to my audience? If you’re a tax expert, that’s great, but I don’t talk about taxes, although there may be an angle on career confidence and taxes that I’m missing. If I don’t readily know why your topic is a good fit for my audience, you’ll have to help me understand that.

If you want to get on the radar of a podcast host, a great way to do that is to leave a review in iTunes/Apple Podcasts. That gives you an opportunity to leave a note telling the host why you liked the show and why other people should listen. Again, the point here is that you are indicating interest in my show.

Have a good story. What do you want to share? We all tell our stories differently to different people and you want to make sure that you’re giving something fresh to each podcast host that you talk to.

I remember a friend of mine got a very high-profile guest on her show, but no matter what she asked him, he gave her the same canned answers she had heard from him a hundred times before. I don’t even know if she ever published the interview because she said she was bored. If you wouldn’t want to listen to your story, why would you want to be a guest on a podcast?

Now, if you have a website, great! Don’t make me hunt for you. If you have a blog, I want a couple, not 50, but a couple links to posts so I can find out more about you and your story. If you’ve been on another podcast, great. Give me a link so I can listen and say yes faster. When you land in my inbox, your main goal is to not give me a reason to say no.

At the end of the day, I want to know why you’d be a good guest for my podcast. Not a good guest for anybody, but a good guest for me. And, most importantly, what will my audience know or be able to do as a result of listening to you?

I’m really not trying to discourage you. I believe there are people out there with great stories and somebody needs to hear them, but if there are any obstacles to getting your story heard, I just want to help you figure out what those are. In this way, the answer to whether you can be on my show might be a “maybe”, but it’s much more likely that the answer will be, “yes”.

Do you have any questions? Reach out and let me know.

P.S. Can I ask a favor? If you know somebody who’d be a great guest for my podcast, please let them know by sharing this page with them!