be realistic with your pitches | Beyond Your Side Hustle

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!

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.

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