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Author: bbittner

The Interview Went Well, Now What?

You really knocked it out of the park with your interview! THAT. IS. AWESOME.

Now that the interview is complete, you’ll want people to listen to what you had to say, right? You wouldn’t want all the work you’ve done thus far to be for nothing. After all, your pitch e-mail or one-sheet should offer your help in promoting your episode to your community, so your job isn’t quite over yet. 

Help Promote the Show with Your Community

You should ask the podcast host or producer how they promote each episode of the podcast to make sure your efforts will complement theirs.

Network podcasts will often have a marketing team that pushes all of the network’s shows and episodes through their own marketing sequence. Independent creators will typically promote their own work, relying on their community to spread the word. This often means a push on social media or through their mailing list to bring attention to each episode they publish. Regardless, you’ll want to know what to expect to see to amplify their efforts to promote your appearance.

Whether independent or on a network, ask someone on the podcast team what that process is like: what platforms they use, when promotion for an upcoming episode begins, and how long it typically runs after each show publishes. Make sure the people who need to know have all your social media handles, so they can tag or mention you in each post. It will help better expose their community to you and your brand.

A day or two before you expect their promotional efforts to begin, you should share a post on a shared social media outlet, tagging or mentioning them in a post about how excited you are for your upcoming appearance or how much fun you had recording it. This increases the likelihood of immersing yourself in their community, by having your post retweeted or shared from THEIR social media to kick off the promotion of your appearance on the show.

Generally speaking, your efforts in promoting your appearance are better spent directly sharing their post talking about you, rather than creating your own content about it. By retweeting on Twitter or sharing their Facebook or LinkedIn posts to your own community, you help their posts gain further exposure, while also promoting yourself. 

If you find that their process is lacking in any way, don’t be afraid to step up your own promotion to drive listeners to the episode.

Forward Their Email

If they utilize a mailing list to update listeners, you have another opportunity to help promote your appearance. If the service they use provides a built-in forwarding mechanism, use it to send their promotional e-mail to your family and friends, most engaged community members, and internally within your business. If their service doesn’t, just forward it along with a personal note to those same stakeholders in your success. 

Refer Future Guests

If you look back fondly on your experience, definitely connect future guests with the podcast team. A glowing review or recommendation from you will offer future guests a preview of the experiences, outcomes, and networks their appearance can provide them as well. The team will appreciate your referrals, because podcast creators are almost always “on the hunt” for guests.

If your suggestions work out well, you are probably going to be invited back to appear again without all the hassle of research and preparation. It could even lead to a recurring guest spot.

I did this exact thing with two radio stations before moving to Saint Petersburg. I started out as a first-time guest, became a repeat guest after sending more their way, and both offered to have me on for a weekly spot to build my profile with their already-built community and share my areas of focus FOR FREE. 

Speak Well of Them

Believe it or not, podcast creators talk among each other. The more popular the show is, the more connections each host and producer has with other podcasts. Like I was taught, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. 

Finally, you should include this guest appearance to your website or blog, as well as an update to your one-sheet.

Hustleburg Episode 40 – Answering Your Questions About “Racing to the Top”

This episode is a Q&A episode answering questions from you about “Racing to the Top” with your business. Instead of treating what you do like a commodity and continually racing to the bottom, here’s how you can race to the top!

What Do You Mean By “Race to the Top”?

When you starting a business, many entrepreneurs make decisions about who they’ll serve. If you try to serve the masses right away, you’re sitting there with your fingers crossed that you will become an overnight success. I hate to break it to you, but there is no such thing as an overnight success. We shouldn’t race to the bottom by trying to find advantages to exploit the status quo. We shouldn’t compete on price, location, or speed, because someone can always do it cheaper, closer, or faster. Compete by adding more value for your customer than the price they pay.

Find Your Community

“People like us do things like this.” — Seth Godin

The people like us are the people around us who see some aspect of the world similarly or who have similar experiences to ours. We encounter others through these early community connections that bring them into a similar orbit that find themselves drawn to our shared experiences, and we find that they also encounter many of the same problems we do. When you solve a problem of this community, you’re adding value to their lives. You have just found the smallest viable audience. You’re solving problems, and in return, they are paying you for it. They are the first to have their problem solved by you, and you serve them well. They tell others they know that have similar issues needing to be solved… Other people like us. They all had this problem but you solved it. I bet you can solve it for others too with this thing. The thing like this.

Brand as Reputation

The bottom line when it comes to brand is that it’s not your name, a logo, or a sign. Your brand is the reputation that others have about you and your business. When you’re starting out, your reputation is a blank slate. You have no experience, but also you have no baggage. Through time, your experience grows, and your reputation will as well. Like attracts like, and your reputation spreads, and you end up with a clientele that expects that from you and will act accordingly.

Kill Them With Kindness

What if I told you that there is one thing that you can focus on in your business that will set you apart from everyone else in your industry, make you the talk of the town, and make your brand such that you get the best customers to join your community? No matter what business you’re in, if you focus on kindness in every interaction you will have an amazing advantage that can’t be surpassed or undercut. When you focus on kindness, you add so much value in every interaction that the rest of your brand identity and reputation dovetail around it. 

The best part? Kindness is free.

Don’t let that price tag fool you about the value of it.

Get Engagement Training in Your Inbox Now

If you’re not satisfied with the social media results you’re getting, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers this training via email.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

Website
Hustleburg Listener Community on LinkedIn
Beyond Your Side Hustle on LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Brett’s LinkedIn

If you enjoyed what you heard in this episode, please take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on your favorite player. Each episode is available on its own post, with the entire catalog here. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast catcher. We listen to this show and our favorites on Castbox. It’s hosted by Podbean. We appreciate your attention, and we can’t wait to have you back for the next episode. 

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

If you have any questions you’d like to have answered on an upcoming Q&A episode, please take a moment to visit beyondyoursidehustle.com/podcastquestion and ask there. If you’re a St. Pete businessperson who’d like to sit down for an interview, please reach out to us here. 

How Can I Make the Most of my Guest Appearance?

Congratulations! You’re booked to appear on a podcast.

Now what?

Listen to at Least 3 Episodes of the Show

You should have already listened to an episode of their podcast to get a general feel for the show, its format, and how interviews fit into it. For each confirmed guest appearance, pick three episodes of the podcast to get a much better understanding of the show, how it “flows,” and to get better acquainted with the host(s). These episodes should all be episodes with interviews, and the interview guests should be as closely aligned to your five areas of focus as possible to fully prepare for your appearance. 

Ask Questions

As podcasts hosts, we try to anticipate everyone’s questions about their upcoming interview. It never fails that something gets missed on occasion. The best way to prepare for an awesome interview is to ask the team what to expect. After listening to four total episodes for research, your other questions shouldn’t be generic, and the podcast team will appreciate that you’ve put effort into learning about the show before you appear. 

Also, you should ask for a pool of questions that they intend to use in the interview. For guests of Hustleburg, they receive these questions about a week before the scheduled interview day and time. Each guest should be able to put their best foot forward to the Hustleburg community, and if they prepare well, they will shine. 

For every interview I’ve given and panel I’ve appeared on, I ask for questions or an outline of topics. That way, I can prepare my notes and how I will tie it all in with “The Five” and a call to action in the interview.

Prepare Two Calls to Action

As part of your preparation, you should create an offer to add value for each listener that you can refer to in the interview naturally, as well as provide to the podcast audience in the show notes. If you have a white paper, email course, cheat sheet, or other special offer, tie it into the conversation you foresee happening. It’s even better if you can direct them to that podcast’s specific URL to measure the response from your guest appearance. This contextual call to action that flows from the interview’s conversation should feel natural and part of the conversation, as you share with their community how you can add even more value for them. 

In the same vein, almost nearly podcast host will give you the opportunity to promote yourself at some point during the interview, so preparing a call to action for that closing is as important as your earlier, contextual one. You’ve probably heard Hustleburg guests asked, “So, where can our listeners find out more about you/your business?” You shouldn’t just list every possible outlet. In fact, limit your response to 3 at most, including calling back to your contextual call to action within the interview. 

Be Interesting, Be Informative, Be Happy

When it’s almost time to record, you should arrive several minutes early to the in-person or virtual meeting, so that you can get your bearings and focus on the task at hand. This will also keep the podcast team you’re about to meet from freaking out about running late or a possible no-show. It also gives you a few minutes to separate this from the rest of your day and get ready for the conversation.

Finally, in these few minutes before you sit down to conduct the interview, relax, breathe, and look over your notes one last time. If you’ve followed the earlier advice, you’re prepared, and you should feel confident about the conversation about to take place. As the conversation begins, make sure to smile. Even when there is no video component, your tone will often convey more about your state of mind than any words you say. 

Have fun!

Hustleburg Episode 39 – Interview with Psalms’ Gourmet Brittle’s Psalms Mack and Carlton Owens

“It’s Been Prepared with Love, Caring, and Blessings”

With their gourmet brittle in over 30 locations through Saint Petersburg, it’s hard to find someone who hasn’t tried Psalms’ Gourmet Brittle. Who hasn’t seen their kiosk during the holidays at Tyrone Square Mall or found their brittle at Mazzaro’s and Rollin’ Oats?

In this episode of Hustleburg, Psalms herself, joined by her son Carlton Owens, share their story behind the creation and operation of their family business. Starting with baking peanut brittle during the holidays for friends and family to expanding beyond the traditional into brittle with pecans, mixed nuts, almonds, and other specialty, made-to-order options, they are spreading the Psalms’ love with this tasty treat throughout the ‘Burg.

Psalms' Gourmet Brittle on display

Break Off a Piece of their Gourmet Brittle

Connect with Psalms to find out where, when, and how you can get some yum:

Website
Shop Their Online Store
Facebook
Instagram
E-Mail
727-201-3371

Get Engagement Training in Your Inbox Now

If you’re not satisfied with the social media results you’re getting, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers this training via email.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

Website
Hustleburg Listener Community on LinkedIn
Beyond Your Side Hustle on LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Brett’s LinkedIn

If you enjoyed what you heard in this episode, please take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on your favorite player. Each episode is available on its own post, with the entire catalog here. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast catcher. We listen to this show and our favorites on Castbox. It’s hosted by Podbean. We appreciate your attention, and we can’t wait to have you back for the next episode. 

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

If you have any questions you’d like to have answered on an upcoming Q&A episode, please take a moment to visit beyondyoursidehustle.com/podcastquestion and ask there. If you’re a St. Pete businessperson who’d like to sit down for an interview, please reach out to us here. 

How Do I Pitch Myself as a Podcast Guest?

You’ve identified all the podcasts that are appropriate for you by podcast hunting, right? You found the shows where the audience is right for your business, their topics intersect with “the Five,” and you have good contact information. What do you do with all of it?

Before we get into the mechanics of pitching yourself as a guest, now is a good time to set realistic expectations. First, be prepared to be rejected a lot. Moreso, be prepared to not hear back from a lot of podcast teams. Getting booked as a guest is a combination of what you bring to the show and the number of pitches you send.

Extremely popular podcasts get lots of high-profile guests, so it’s probably best to approach them with realism and experience. Early in your journey as a guest, aim for some of the smaller shows that will be ecstatic about someone who wants to be a guest on their podcast to build your guest resume. Once you have experience as a guest and a portfolio of appearances to point to, you can go after the bigger podcasts.

1. Listen to an Episode

Before you reach out to a podcast, listen to at least one episode of it that includes an interview or a panel. Listening will give you a glimpse at personality issues, problems with the format, or that you don’t actually want to sit down for a 3-hour interview that only hits on your five areas of focus once or twice. Listening to an episode will eliminate about a quarter to a third of the directory you’ve acquired through your podcast-hunting efforts.

2. Prepare a One-Sheet

A “one-sheet” is an introduction to the podcast host(s) and producers about you. In it, you are providing podcast hosts and producers with the right information to know that you are right for their show. It serves as your podcast resume, summarizing who you are and what you do. Most importantly, it centers around the value you can add for their audience.

Your one-sheet should include:

  • Your photo (headshot preferred) and your business logo
  • Your qualifications as an expert 
  • “The Five” – the five areas of focus you can add value in
  • Any suggested questions for the interviewer
  • Recent appearances on other podcasts or outlets
  • How you plan to help promote the episode that features you

Your company website should also include a page (maybe as a sub-page of your About or Contact page) that contains the above for any media contacts that might be seeking you out for an interview. Having this information available would make any show’s host or producer invite you in a second. You can also share the URL on any online forms for guests that may only allow plain text submissions.

3. Reaching Out With Your Pitch

You’ve reached the easiest part of getting booked, reaching out. You’ve done the hard work of researching the podcast and preparing your one-sheet for their viewing. While reaching out to podcast teams, do yourself a favor and make sure you don’t flood every podcast at once.

That means two things:

  • You should send each podcast an individual e-mail focused on that show and the value you can add to their audience.  No mass emails to every show.
  • Your contacts should be spread out, so as not to confuse one show with another. Besides the embarrassment of possibly confusing shows, your time spent finalizing your calendar to appear will be more organized and defined with fewer appearances to juggle.

Finally, by sending your one-sheet information in the body of an e-mail, rather than attaching it, you are more likely to be seen by the intended recipient and not caught in a spam or threat filter.

4. Follow Up in a Week

Be prepared with a follow-up e-mail that shows even more value than your initial contact. In it, you should include a link to another podcast or news appearance, a testimonial for your speaking or writing capability, or links to an article you’ve written on the topic you’d like to be a guest on the podcast about. You should probably wait at least five business days before sending a follow-up to your initial contact.

With these tips, you’ll be on a podcast in no time.

Hustleburg Episode 38 – Answering Your Content Creation Questions

This episode is a Q&A episode with questions from you about creating content for your business. In the first podcast Q&A episode, I seem to have struck a chord with many of you, as many of you have been asking questions about content creation generally and pillar content specifically. This episode is for you!

There is No Such Thing As Too Much Content

I’ve often been quoted as saying there is no such thing as too much content. We aren’t going to be creating content for the sake of creating content. Everything that you create needs to add value for your community and it needs to be a part of The Five, your five focus areas for content. This isn’t as tough as it may seem.

Here’s the good news: Each tweet you send, each link you share on Facebook, each photo you post to Instagram, and each video you share on TikTok is a piece of content. If you have a podcast, you can re-purpose it by slicing and dicing audio clips, create memes of important quotes within the episode, use your show notes to create blog posts, and record not just audio, but video to create for YouTube. You can also ask your community to create their own content around their vision and use for what you do. Look around. There are a ton of aspects to your business and your life that you’ve never shared with the community you’ve created.

  1. Re-use your content with context – Use content on multiple platforms, creating multiple posts using the same words, images, videos, etc. The key thing to think about here is context, not simply cross-posting
  2. Re-purpose pillar content – Have a long-form evergreen piece of content that you can break down and re-purpose into multiple pieces of content. White papers, podcasts, videos, and webinars can be very helpful here. 
  3. Ask for user-generated content – Engage your community and have them create content for you. Your many fans and followers are definitely willing to share their ideas, create content that you ask for, or even create content for your business without anything more than an ask.
  4. Document your life – Use your daily routine and the activities of your to create content around your business. Treat your life like you’re on a reality show and share the results.

Re-Use Content Across Platforms with Context

The REASON behind your post and the value you bring to the community on THAT platform make up your context. Also, your content can’t be about your calls to action. It should be about adding value to your community. With all this in mind, you can’t increase your content creation by simply cross-posting your Instagram photos to Facebook, which they’ve made super easy to do with only a slide of the switch. Your community on each platform expects something different from you, because they interact with you on THAT platform, not to be a part of a marketing effort. The key is to treat each post as an individual piece of content and craft it as such. You’re reaching out to two or three different audiences on each of the platforms you share it, so you need to consider each of them differently.

There is a TON of content out there, waiting to be consumed. So, you have to be great to reach people where they are and engage them. So, DEFINITELY post that photo across every platform you use, but only do so if you can offer something different to each audience that consumes it.

Re-Purpose Pillar Content

It’s easier to re-purpose content and make derivative pieces when you have a pillar content piece to draw from. A podcast episode, white paper, keynote address, meeting notes, and instructional videos can all turn into several other pieces of content aside from their initial purpose when published. It could be all of these can be broken up into 3-4 blog posts on your website. You can then slice them up further using some of the ideas we outlined earlier in the episode to create even more content for social. This content on social media will drive your existing community toward your other work, and you’ll be able to deepen your already-existing connection with those that carry over. 

Engage Your Community for User-Generated Content

Take some of the pressure off by getting your community to create content for you. Whether video, photo, or written work, featuring user-generated content will not only ease your mind about creating enough content, featuring how your community uses your product or service will highlight them. Reach out to your customers to create content for you, based on how they interact with what you do. Your team is second, only to you, in being an expert in what you do, and they may have helpful tips, hacks, or suggestions to make what you do even better for your clients. Focus some of your user-generated content on the people you do business with. This is an easy way to engage your community, both internally and externally, to make content for you. Sounds like a win-win.

Document Your Life

It may not seem like it right now, but by the end of this episode, inspiration will spark you to realize how interesting you are and how interesting what you do is to other people. We love to look at what others do, think, and surround themselves with when it’s not like us or obvious to us. Right now, you could probably create 100 pieces of content based on your view, your desk set up, the tools you use and how you use them, and your calendar. 

Like the environment you find boring, your process may seem to be as well, but there will be an audience ready to get a glimpse of how something works or how you get from raw materials to finished product.

We come to care about those we know. Even if we’ve never met, we want to know about the people we interact with. 

Documenting is easier than creating, and it’s just as interesting.

Get Engagement Training in Your Inbox Now

If you’re not satisfied with the social media results you’re getting, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers this training via email.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

Website
Hustleburg Listener Community on LinkedIn
Beyond Your Side Hustle on LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Brett’s LinkedIn

If you enjoyed what you heard in this episode, please take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on your favorite player. Each episode is available on its own post, with the entire catalog here. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast catcher. We listen to this show and our favorites on Castbox. It’s hosted by Podbean. We appreciate your attention, and we can’t wait to have you back for the next episode. 

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

If you have any questions you’d like to have answered on an upcoming Q&A episode, please take a moment to visit beyondyoursidehustle.com/podcastquestion and ask there. If you’re a St. Pete businessperson who’d like to sit down for an interview, please reach out to us here. 

How Can I Find Podcasts Looking for Guests?

Real talk: Just about any podcast that uses interviews as a part of their show’s format is looking for guests. Hustleburg is always looking for guests to interview. Both interviews and serving on a panel are wonderful opportunities for you to build and promote your brand, while the podcast team creates content for the community they’ve built.

1. Identify Relevant Podcasts

You’ll need to find relevant podcasts where you can add value for the audience. Start with seeking those whose topics match or dovetail well with “The Five,” the five areas of focus for your content as the beginning of your search for relevancy. With how many podcasts exist, you will probably find several that complement your expertise well. You just need to know how and where to search.

How to Search

To begin, go through Apple’s Podcast Directory by category to identify potential shows for your appearance. Podcast creators self-categorize their show with a good degree of generality. Your best bet is to list all shows that look to intersect with your five content areas. When starting to compile your list, don’t focus on specifics yet. You want to amass a list before going too deep about each podcast and narrowing it down. 

Additionally, search Google’s Podcast Directory for specific keywords that make up “The Five” for you. In addition to finding entire lists of possible podcasts, you’ll also find individual shows that didn’t categorize themselves well with Apple for your category scan of their directory. Don’t fault the creators for this, as Apple only three categories for a podcast. 

Next, turn to Google and search. Your efforts with typing “podcast+ {one of your five focus areas}.” Additionally, if you identified a target audience for your guest appearance, I would also search for that “{target market}+podcast.”

Other Ways to Find Podcasts

Those aren’t the only options to find suitable podcasts. By looking at the influencers in your industry and in “The Five,” you can find previous media appearances they have done. This will likely overturn an opportunity or two here that you hadn’t thought about previously. 

Obviously, Apple’s podcast directory and Google searches will only turn up so many opportunities. There is actually a large enough disconnect between podcast hosts and potential podcast guests that there are several podcast matching services, like podcastguests.com, findradioguests.com, and perfectpodcastguest.com, aiming to connect podcasts and guests. A bit of a disclaimer here: We’ve not found much success either as a host or potential guest with any of the matching services.

Last, but not least, your local podcasts might be a fit for you. Attending local podcast meetups to network with podcast hosts and reaching out to your local Chamber of Commerce may point you in the right direction. Often, the Chamber features local businesses on their podcast. 

2. Get More Information

At this point, you identified a lot of possibilities, but you don’t know a lot about them. Now, amassing a list is replaced by eliminating those irrelevant to your business. To look further, Google each podcast name from your list. You should look to find the following:

  • Podcast Website
  • Podcast Host(s) Name(s)
  • Topics
  • Reach (local, state, regional, national)
  • Contact E-Mail or Online Guest Form

Knowing this information will give you a better and deeper look at whether they are a good fit for you. You’re likely to strike a lot of podcasts because their topics, while related to your five areas of focus, don’t really line up with where you can add value to the audience. You will also eliminate a lot of podcasts because they have a reach that won’t intersect with your intended audience. For example, there’s no sense in appearing on a podcast that is focused on New Mexico when your business serves Saint Petersburg. 

While taking this deep dive for information, you will also discover that several shows’ contact e-mail addresses or online guest forms are hard to find. If you’re really lucky, they may share how they source guests on their website. With Hustleburg, we find Saint Petersburg entrepreneurs through our activity within the business community and we urge them to contact us here. This type of information could be found on the about page for the show, the hosts’ personal websites, or in the reply-to for their mailing list or newsletter.

Hustleburg Episode 37 – Interview with St. PetersBARK!’s Krista Schmidt

“You Are What You Eat… For Our Pets as Well”

With so many options for feeding our pets, enriching their lives with a quality food that can promote good health, Krista Schmidt seeks to share natural pet foods with the pet community of Saint Petersburg. She created St. PetersBARK!, a pet market offering a full-scale selection of healthy dog and cat provisions paired with incredible customer service. Today, the pet market is packed with hand-selected natural food (whether raw, kibble, canned, or freeze-dried), treats from local vendors, and pet accessories. 

In this episode of Hustleburg, you’ll hear how Krista went “city shopping” in Florida to find the best place to start her business. Saint Petersburg’s small business-friendly environment and vibrant pet community drew her, and she launched St. PetersBARK! in 2015 after a year of making all-natural dog treats in her home. 

Passion for the health of our pets also includes hosting a low-cost veterinary clinic, nail trims, and non-anesthetic dental cleanings on a regular basis. 

Passion for their customers includes an annual BARK!toberfest Customer Appreciation Event, expanded to be three days in 2020 to ensure a COVID-safer experience, October 9-11. This Facebook event offers even more information about this year’s event.

Feed Your Pets Well

Connect with St. PetersBARK! to ensure you serve your pets the best foods to help with a long and loving life:

Website
Shop Their Online Store
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
727-217-5366

Hear Krista Schmidt from St. PetersBARK! on Hustleburg

Get Engagement Training in Your Inbox Now

If you’re not satisfied with the social media results you’re getting, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers this training via email.

Find out more about Beyond Your Side Hustle here:

Website
Hustleburg Listener Community on LinkedIn
Beyond Your Side Hustle on LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Brett’s LinkedIn

If you enjoyed what you heard in this episode, please take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on your favorite player. Each episode is available on its own post, with the entire catalog here. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast catcher. We listen to this show and our favorites on Castbox. It’s hosted by Podbean. We appreciate your attention, and we can’t wait to have you back for the next episode. 

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

If you have any questions you’d like to have answered on an upcoming Q&A episode, please take a moment to visit beyondyoursidehustle.com/podcastquestion and ask there. If you’re a St. Pete businessperson who’d like to sit down for an interview, please reach out to us here. 

Quick Look at Podcasting

Podcasting has been around for a while, serving as a way to democratize the audio medium for each of us. Today, you can produce audio content and have an audience listening in a matter of hours. Before podcasting, gatekeepers at radio stations prevented diverse content offerings by limiting the number of shows fit into their schedule and model. Whether a podcast focuses on the migration patterns and life cycles of penguins or something equally specific and niche or a show that serves as a place to perform long-form interviews with celebrities, they all bypass the conventional audio medium of radio and radio stations. 

If you listen to podcasts like Hustleburg, you probably know enough about podcasts to be able to find the shows you’re interested in, as well as how to listen to them when a new episode is available. If you’re new to listening to podcasts or have found them by clicking a link on Facebook or another social media platform, here’s a bit of information to bolster your podcast awareness:

Podcasting Background

  • Podcasts really aren’t that new. They date back to the 1980s, but it took Apple’s introduction of digital audio content to iTunes in 2005 that helped to kickstart their popularity among the masses. 
  • Did you know that President George W. Bush was among the first “podcasters?” In 2005, WhiteHouse.gov made his weekly radio addresses available for download on the White House’s website.
  • It didn’t take long for traditional broadcast media to jump on board, with newspapers, radio stations, and tv networks creating shows based around the content they were already creating. As a result of their first-mover advantage and locating terrific audio production, NPR is one of the most popular podcast publishers of all time. Their smash podcast hit This American Life, publishing weekly since 2006, and the top downloaded podcast of all time, Serial, give it serious clout in the podcasting world.

“How Do I Listen?”

This is frequently the biggest hurdle for most people. Obviously, there are ways to publish directly to the web to listen on a phone or computer through the web browser and be found, but phone makers have made it REALLY easy to jump right into listening to podcasts on their devices. Since separating podcast content and making iTunes music-only last year, Apple Podcasts has been the dominant force in connecting podcasts with listeners. With a similar timeline, Google Podcasts entered the scene in 2019 as well, taking podcast content from their Google Play Music service that shutters later in 2020. With both of the major operating systems now offering a built-in app specifically for finding and listening to podcasts, getting started as a podcast listener has never been easier. 

You may have noticed Spotify jumping into the podcast world, making quite a splash in hopes of being a disruptor in the industry. They previously featured popular podcasts within its streaming app, but recently opened up their platform to podcasters of any size. In 2020, they also gobbled up exclusive content from Joe Rogan, whose Joe Rogan Experience podcast is one of the world’s most popular, and Michelle Obama, who launched her podcast in July 2020. Additionally, Spotify purchased a podcast creation and hosting platform, Anchor, to also make waves on the production side of podcasting.

There are plenty of podcast players available to match just about any taste when it comes to layout, features, etc. We LOVE the cross-platform Castbox player for listening to shows, as it does a fantastic job of managing them across both an iPhone and an Android.

Learn how podcasting can help your business.

Hustleburg Episode 36 – Answering Your Podcasting Questions, Part 3 – Being a Guest

This episode is a Q&A episode with questions from you about podcasting. In Episode 32, Brett asked for questions and you delivered. The first podcast Q&A episode focused on how a podcast could help your business. The second podcast Q&A episode centered around podcast monetization. In this episode, we will answer questions about being a guest on a podcast with a pretty substantial step-by-step guide to get you behind the microphone.

How Can I Find Podcasts Looking for Guests?

Just about any podcast that has interviews or panels as a part of their show is looking for guests. First, you’ll need to find relevant podcasts where you can add value for the audience. Start with “The Five,” the five areas of focus for your content to begin your search for relevancy. 

I would start by going through Apple’s Podcast Directory by category to identify potential shows for you to appear on. Additionally, utilize Apple’s Podcast Directory to search for specific keywords that make up “The Five” for you. Next, turn to Google. You should be able to find plenty of shows here as well by typing podcast+ one of your five focus areas.

Take a look at influencers in your industry and in “The Five” to scout the media appearances they have done. The disconnect between podcast hosts and potential podcast guests is large enough that there are several podcast matching services who aim to connect podcasts and guests. 

You identified a bunch of possibilities. Now, it’s time to see how relevant they are to your intended audience from the list of podcasts that you identified. A few bits of information will give you a better look at whether they should remain on your list going forward. You may also discover that their show’s contact e-mail address is hard to find.

How Do I Pitch Myself as a Guest?

Now that you’ve identified all the podcasts that are appropriate for you… Be prepared to be rejected a lot. Also be prepared to not hear back from a lot of podcasts. Before you do anything further, listen to at least one episode of the podcast that includes an interview or a panel. Prepare a one-sheet as an introduction to the podcast host(s) and producers about you. The easiest part of getting booked is reaching out, because you’ve already researched the podcast and prepared your one-sheet for their viewing. Have a follow-up e-mail ready that is different from your initial contact, but offers more value with you as a guest. You’ll be on a podcast in no time.

How Can I Make the Most of my Guest Appearance?

Congratulations! You’re booked to appear on a podcast. Now what?

If you followed what I outlined in the previous question, you have already listened to an episode of their podcast to get a general feel for the show, its format, and how interviews fit. The best way to prepare for an awesome interview is to ask what to expect. Also, you should ask for a question pool that they intend to use in the interview. 

Use this information to prepare notes and figure out how to tie it all together with “The Five” or a call to action in the interview, both contextual and in closing. As part of your preparation, you should create an offer to add value for each listener that you can refer to in the interview naturally, as well as provide to the podcast audience in the show notes. In the same vein, almost every podcast host will give you the opportunity to promote yourself toward the end of the interview, so preparing a call to action for that closing is as important as your contextual one. 

You should arrive several minutes early to the in-person or virtual meeting to record, so that you can get your bearings before jumping into the show. Finally, before you sit down to conduct the interview, take a few moments to relax, breathe, and look over your notes one last time.

The Interview Went Well, Now What?

You really knocked it out of the park with your interview! Now that the interview wrapped, you want people to listen to what you had to say, right? Often, you can ask the podcast host or producer how they promote each episode of the podcast and what that process is like: what platforms they use, when promotion for an upcoming episode begins, and how long it typically runs after each show publishes. A day or two before you expect their promotional efforts to begin, you should share a post on a shared social media outlet, tagging or mentioning them in a post about how excited you are for your upcoming appearance or how much fun you had recording it. For each social media outlet, your efforts are better spent directly sharing their post talking about you, rather than creating your own content about it.

If you look back fondly on your experience, definitely connect future guests with the podcast team. Believe it or not, podcast creators talk among each other, so speak fondly of your experience or don’t mention it at all.

Get Engagement Training in Your Inbox Now

If you’re not satisfied with the social media results you’re getting, Beyond Your Side Hustle offers this training via email.

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If you enjoyed what you heard in this episode, please take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on your favorite player. Each episode is available on its own post, with the entire catalog here. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast catcher. We listen to this show and our favorites on Castbox. It’s hosted by Podbean. We appreciate your attention, and we can’t wait to have you back for the next episode. 

Be a Guest on Hustleburg

If you have any questions you’d like to have answered on an upcoming Q&A episode, please take a moment to visit beyondyoursidehustle.com/podcastquestion and ask there. If you’re a St. Pete businessperson who’d like to sit down for an interview, please reach out to us here.