Podcast Interviews With Impact – An Interview With Jessica Rhodes – The Podcast Report Episode #81

Podcast Interviews with Impact it's an interview with Jessica Rhodes here on the Podcast Report Show. Notes, links, conversation and even more content@thepodcastreport.com 81 earlier today, I interviewed Jessica Rhodes from interviewconnections.com about the whole world of podcast interviewing, both from the side of the podcaster and the person who's interviewing. I subjected her to my little seven interview hacks. I found out what happened there. That was fun, but I knew the interview was going to go long. I had this great intention of taking the video, editing it up, getting the best parts of it, but gosh darn it, Jessica was so good and so complete that I want to make all of this available to you. So what we have in this episode of the Podcast Report is about the first 20 minutes of my interview with Jessica. It's brilliant, it's amazing, and you're going to want more. Here's how you get more. If you head out to the podcastreport.com 81 I'll give you a chance to sign up for the audio of the rest of the interview, the video of the entire interview if you want to go back that way, and the PDF of interviewing hacks that I speak to, all of which I subject Jessica to. Because when you take strategy to your interviews, you can do all that more. The money of interviewing, the strategy of interviewing, the process, the technology of interviewing are all themes I'm going to be exploring over the next couple of weeks here on the Podcast Report, and I'm thrilled to start here. So this interview is good. This interview is solid. You will end with a lot of great content about both receiving and doing interviews on podcasts. But I will bet you want to go further. You can do all that@the podcastreport.com 81 with that said and done, let's get to Jessica. Hey everybody, this is Paul Colligan, and welcome to a live video recording with Jessica Rhodes from Interview Connections. We're going to be chatting about podcast interviews. I have Jessica Rhodes on the line with me, and Jessica Rhodes and I met in the most fascinating circumstances and it's just, it's the power of podcasting. It's the power of live events, it's the power of social. It's the power of a bunch of things. So we were at Social Media Marketing World 2015 in San Diego, California. It was night two of the event. Now, if you ever get a chance to go to Social Media Marketing World, definitely do. It's. It's amazing. They actually rent out the USS Midway. Paul isn't that a aircraft carrier from World War II? Why? Why? Yes, it is. And they rent out that entire thing. And it's an amazing night of networking. And it's basically night of food. It's amazing night of a bunch of stuff. On the second night, they have another networking event. It's a lot of fun. Typically not as big just because it's hard to beat the midway. And so I'm at the event. There's some people I know, Jess, I think, like Cliff Ravenscroft was there or who was with us.

I remember we were talking with Lou Mungello.

Lou Mongello. That's right. That's right. And so. And I'm just fascinated with the industry and I'm fascinated with a bunch of things. And I tell Jess, I'm like, yeah, I'm just fascinated with this industry. And there's this whole thing where everybody and their mother is doing interviews and everybody's obsessing about interviews. And I love John Lee Dumas, I love what John's done. But it's not the only format. And I had mentioned the fact that somebody posted on my Facebook page, paul, what do I do if I can't do interviews? And I said, don't do an interview. And you know, I thought it was really logical. And Jess had that same smile that she has right now. And I said, okay, what are you laughing about? And she said, well, she told us what she does for business. Jess, what do you do for a business?

Well, I am the founder and CEO of InterviewConnections.com where the Premier source for booking outstanding podcast guests. So I've built a very successful, multiple six figure business booking guests on podcasts and finding guests for podcasters. So I, there's a niche, there's a need for it. I mean, I'm laughing like, I completely agree because I don't think every podcast has to have interviews, but there are a lot of people that want to be interviewed and have no clue of how to find shows. And then podcasters that need great guests. So that's where we come in.

So a, hats off. You know, I still like, oh my goodness. I love the market, I love industry. I love these things. So, A, well, okay, two things. A, jealousy. B, hats off. Congratulations.

So thank you.

Now, now to put these things into perspective for everybody, Jess has done three things, not just one. Number one, she's put herself in the center of podcasting interviews, which is a tremendous part of the industry. So she's a go to gal for this topic. Part of a large reason of why we're doing this. Okay, two, she gets paid to put podcasters on shows. And I'm going to give you a chance. You see here, I've got the link to the podcast report 81. We've got a giveaway from Jess. Connect with her. Do that. C. She makes money by putting podcasters on shows. So she gets paid by the person who wants to be interviewed. She gets paid by the interviewee, and she has a reputation to protect and making sure she does it right and makes it worth the money. So the whole transaction is fabulous. If you ever get a chance to put yourself in the middle of one of the greatest industries out there, put yourself on both sides, and then produce a business that requires that you absolutely perform above expectations, I recommend that you do. Jess. Is that. Is that a good summary so far? What you got?

That is a very good summary. And in addition to getting podcasters booked on. On interviews as a guest, I mean, we're working with a lot of entrepreneurs, experts who don't have their own podcasts, because you'll find a lot of people want to get it. They want to go. They want to get in on the game, they want to be on podcasts, and they're like, I don't know if I actually want my own show. So they start getting interviewed, they get bit by the podcasting bug, and then they start their own show. So I actually have a video series on my website, Rock the podcast from both sides of the mic. Because you really do. And if you are a podcaster and you want to keep improving your. Your art and your craft and your skill, you should get interviewed as a guest. Because it's such a different experience being interviewed and not being the one driving the conversation.

A whole bunch of. Whole bunch of knowledge bombs just being lobbed at you there by Jess. And I want to. I want to highlight, you know, sometimes, you know, despite that, this is where I make my money. Despite that, this is where Jess makes her money. Despite this is where I see Dave Curley's on here. This is where Dave makes his money. No, podcasting is not for everyone, okay? And. But podcasting is a great content distribution mechanism. And it's funny, I've seen people who will have a budget of 10, 20, $30,000 to create a show with no initial audience, no initial impact, no initial nothing yet to get. Just to get you on a show that's matched with your audience. Instant credibility, you know, instant attention, instant audience, instant. All these things, you know, from a podcast marketing standpoint, you know, some of my clients, they always come to me and they're like, okay, Paul, where can we buy viewers? You know, where can we buy listeners? Working with my new audience members. Well, the fact of the matter is, the first place your podcast audience comes from is your audience. You tell your list, I got a podcast, they follow. The next place they come from are people who already have podcast religion who are interested in your topic. So, Paul, are you saying that if I got on a show related to my topic, those people would jump on over? Well, don't ask Paul that. Hey, Jess, is that what Paul say?

100%. That is absolutely true. And it's a. I love that you said you have to be promoting your show to your list because that's a mistake so many podcasters make is they're pushing out on social media and on Facebook and on Twitter. And I'll ask them, okay, well, your downloads aren't going up. How much are you promoting this to your list? Are you emailing your list and like, oh, well, I haven't done that. Well, those are people that want to hear from you, so definitely be promoting it to your list. And yes, if I have gotten a lot of listeners to my podcast. I mean, one person I can think of in particular, a guy named Adrian Porter, I just interviewed him on my show is long overdue, but it's a great episode. It's coming out in a couple of weeks. And. And he came up to me, actually, at Social Media Marketing World last year, and he goes, you're Jessica Rhodes. I heard you get interviewed on Leaders in the Trenches with Gene Hammett. And then I started listening to your podcast, and we've booked a lot of our clients on his show, so it's been a win, win relationship. But, yeah, he heard me as a guest on. On his. On another show. So it was. I have connected with so many people who. Who hear me as a guest on other podcasts, and they come to find my content. If they like my video, if they like videos, they'll watch my videos on you. If they like podcasts, they'll subscribe to Roads to Success. So you got to get yourself out there in all different ways.

All right, I was about to sit a treat while you're doing that, telling everybody you're just lobbing knowledge bombs at us. Everybody give her just a. Just a high five here. I want to stress. I want to push two sides to this. A, you getting the word out about who you are by being an interviewer, the interviewee, but you getting new content for your show by being an interviewer. And what's interesting here is just on this episode, Jess, who has all this knowledge, who has all this credibility, who has all this features because she came on my show, she's been marketing. The fact that she's doing this live blab event and the two graphics that I sent her that she's been doing a great marketing job at, Redirect to the podcast report with the big subscribe button and all these things. And what's great is just as much as I'm introducing my audience to Jess and. And definitely, guys, head out to the podcastreport.com 81. You'll get the link to that video series that she just spoke to. You need to know her, you know, by the way, no affiliate promotion, no nothing. She is just who she is, and I'm recommending that to you. But now I want you to think about what bringing people on your show would do for you. Does it make sense to hire Jess in some cases, yes. I'd say more cases often than not, yes. But there's two sides. This. You want to be a good interviewee, and you want to be a good interviewer. And what I want to do is I want to take the rest of this episode and chat about both. So the first half. Well, let's talk about interviewing. And the first question interviewing is, is why would you want to use a booking agent as opposed to reaching out and meeting these people yourself?

It's all about positioning. I mean, if we're talking to a business audience, if you're an entrepreneur, I mean, you've got to position yourself as somebody who is in high demand and someone who is successful. And obviously, like, if you're doing this as a hobby, you want to just connect with people and have a good time and. And, you know, grow your audience. I mean, that's. That's fine. Do it yourself if it's something that you love to do. But if you are an entrepreneur, you want to grow business, you want to have people like Paul Colligan ask you to be on their show because you're making a splash in your industry, you have to be positioning yourself as somebody. Who is that? Go to expert, expert, and just think about whatever your industry is. Think about who those big hitters are, who those big celebrities are. Most likely they have an assistant who's representing them. Most likely they have somebody. You know, it's like that old saying, I'll have my people talk to your people. So that's a positioning yourself as somebody who is very successful and B it working with a booking agent like Interview Connections is going to really fast track your success. I mean, we have hundreds upon thousands of podcasts and guest experts already are in our network. So if somebody say, for example, a marketing expert signs up with us today, I mean, in the snap of a finger, we're going to be connecting you with shows that trust our judgment. We've got podcasters that say, because let me back up a second. All of our clients apply to be a guest expert with us. So we pre screen all of the guests that we are going out there representing. So we have podcasters that say, you know what, I trust your judgment. I know that you only book the best. You only book people with great content who are there to be, you know, give those value bombs. So here's my scheduling link. Schedule anyone you want on my podcast. And so we're there then making that judgment call and connecting guests with these clients or with these podcast hosts. So, so again, you know, working with a booking agent is going to help position you and it's going to help fast track you. And what I would also say to business owners is where is your time best spent? I mean, if you have a business that you're running and you want to be making money in your business, should you really be on itunes, you know, doing all of that work, trying to, you know, just find all these shows and write all these pitches and start from scratch? Or you should be doing high revenue generating activities to grow your business. So these are like getting you booked as a guest or finding guests for your shows. That's. And that's assistant work. And that's like those. That's in my genius at interview connections. But that's not something that you should be spending all your time with if you're trying to use that as a way to grow your existing business.

Okay, I'm going to say something that Jess can't say. Either you're good or you're not. If you're not good, get good. If you are good, let's leverage that.

Right?

I am always amazed how people will buy a $2,000 computer that will make their life easier. People will buy and, you know, pay for an editor to make things happen. Get, get a professionally licensed piece of music. You know, for their podcast, we'll spend money here, here and here. But then when it comes to, you know, other things, you know, we hope that reaching out to someone on Twitter is, is, is going to see conclusions. If you are good, here's the marketplace. Here's the funny thing. Just Think about the economics of this. And again, professional jealousy. If you are good, Jess has a client who wants you. Okay. If Jess has a client who wants you, you can get an audience. You can get impact, you can get reach in a way that you simply before. Think about the impact of that. That, that is. That is tremendous. Could you weasel your way into whatever podcast? Sure. And I don't want to say the word weasel. I'm not trying to make this a pitch for Jess. I'm trying to make this an understanding of the industry. Could you get into another show without Jess's health? Absolutely. You know, but. But again, strategically, is. Is this what you want to do? So when you are interviewing Jessica, how do you get good?

Well, I, I love that you're saying this because, I mean, yes, some people start out good and then you leverage that and they get really great, and some people start out really bad. And I think that as an interviewer, as a podcaster, if you are taking this seriously, is it a marketing strategy? Absolutely. Is it a great way to grow your business? 100%. But you can't just look at this as a thing that, okay, I'm just going to do it and it's going to grow my business. Podcasting is unique, and I think videos as well, and writing quite frank. You have to look at it as a skill and as a craft and as an art, and you have to take it seriously. And I've gotten great compliments on my podcast and my interviewing skills because I take it really seriously. I listen to top podcasters, people that I believe are the best interviewers in the world, and I try to hone that craft. I've worked incredibly hard at not saying my crutch words, like, throughout, and I'm definitely not perfect, but we all have those words. And so I really learned to become a better speaker. So a listen to your podcast. Oh, it's painful to hear your voice that first time on that recording, but listen and critique yourself. And then I, you know, one way that I think you get good as a good interviewer is you don't. And some people might disagree with this, and I guess it's not a black or white rule, but I have gotten, really, My interviews have gotten so much better when I don't pre write a lot of questions beforehand. And it's the scariest thing in the world to have dead air on, on a radio show or a podcast. But I mean, the beauty thing is a podcast that, you know, you can edit out dead air if it's really that bad. But I think about how you grow most and you get better in whatever you're working on when it is scary and it is challenging. And so, hey, can you have a Show Flow page that says at five minutes in I'm going to ask them what their favorite business book is and at 10 minutes in, I'm going to say, what's your. You can have that pre scripted and you'll. Okay, show that maybe some people listen to. But if you go into a podcast interview with a guest and you think a little bit about what you want to get out of the interview and it's a blank slate, you ask maybe one question to start the interview off and then most importantly, you listen to their answers and you listen and you really think, okay, where can I dig deeper? I did an interview with Stephen Wessner on my podcast and I'll be live soon. And he was telling me about this huge failure he had. He was gonna have this big event and he booked a Gary Vaynerchuk to speak. And there was this moment where it was like his business had, you know, really he was in $200,000 loss of the event. And I said, how did that affect your home life and your marriage? Like, I did not prescript that. And it was a little deep and it was a little risky to ask him something personal. But boy, that interview was like awesome because it went there and it was deep and it went in and it really made him open up. It was not a, oh, I did this great event and I went to Gary Vaynerchuk's. Like, I really made him reveal a whole story because I went there and I really listened. Like, he almost kind of brushed over this story a little bit. And I'm like, oh boy, I gotta go there.

Is that why you say you should throw out your Show Flow?

Yes, I heard that. I really. And I definitely started. And I'm not saying like, hey, start, start podcasting and don't ever have a show flow because again, it's not black and white. But I really think that if you've been podcasting for six months to a year and you're feeling like you're on this plateau, don't prepare show Flow like you. Okay. By show flow, I mean, you don't want to say five minutes and I'm going to ask this and then this and then you don't want to stick to all the same questions. You can maybe think about some places the interview might go. But the best interviews that I've done recently in my show are the ones where it was a blank slate and I knew that I was interested in the guest and I knew that we would have a great conversation. I, I keep in mind what I know my listeners love and what topics have resonated most with my audience. And then I just let the magic happen.

I put together a sheet of hacks that I have when I do interviews. And you can see here on the screen if you head out to the podcastreport.com 81 you can get an access to my seven hacks. And what would be fun is take a listen to those hacks or take a look at those hacks and see if you can see how Paul tried to do them in this very episode. I think that'll be fun. But just do you have an interviewing hack for us that maybe could be number eight on that list?

Oh boy. Well, I want to look at this list. I don't have it open.

That's okay. Give us an interview hack. What's something when you're interviewing? I mean throwing out the show flow could certainly be part of it.

But okay, yeah, let me give you, I mean I think asking open ended questions and actually asking someone to tell you more about something like one interview hack and tip that I've been giving a long time that I learned from Jamie Masters, Jamie Tardy of eventual Millionaire is she does this really well in her show is she'll say tell me more about that. Because a lot of times people will maybe give you some sample questions or like, you know, what is questions or just kind of some basic questions where there's just an answer. But if you ask someone tell you more about something, you're giving them the, the mic, so to speak. You're giving them the platform to just open up and talk about something more open ended and dig deeper. Like when somebody gives you an answer instead of just going to the next question, dig deeper, ask a follow up question on that topic rather than just moving on to your next question.

And tell me more is it's a great hack because it's a bit of a psychological play. You know, I didn't tell you how long this was going to go and I honestly don't know how long this is going to go. And I figure I have to edit it. I will later. But you're throwing too many knowledge bombs for us to not go. Tell me more, tell me more. It's like Grease all over again. Like two of you caught that joke.

Everybody else I was in that musical so I got it.

I wouldn't doubt that when you tell your you know, it's just these things you want to think through. A lot of times the person who's inter being interviewed doesn't know how long the interview is going. As a result, they don't want to be abusive. They don't want to take over, you know, they don't want to say too much, you know, but when you say, tell me more, you give them permission to do so. Something.

Yes. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that. That just gave me another light bulb. I mean, that. That really is it. The podcast guest, the interviewee, they are a little bit nervous of taking over the conversation. Some people like myself are going to have no problem just taking the mic and going on. Right. But a lot of guests, they're going to want to give their answer, and they don't want to hijack the conversation. But there's a secret, and I think a lot of podcasters would agree. I love it when guests hijack the conversation and they just give those value bombs and they go. Because that's when listeners really love it. Like, I'm having you on as a guest because I want you to talk. And it's great when we have conversations and we're both saying, you know, we're going back and forth, and that's awesome. But one of my most popular episodes and ones I love was with Lee Caraher, and we joked afterwards because she talked about almost the entire time. Like, I asked her maybe three questions and she just went off. And I sat there, put my feet up, and I'm like, awesome, Getting some really great content here, some great value, but give them the play. And I often tell listeners or my guests that before we start, I say, listen, I love a conversational show. I hate to pull teeth. Please don't hold back. Like, if you've got stories you want to share, share them. I want to spotlight you and I want you to give great content and great information. So just so don't hold back.

Yep, I try to keep the podcast report short, and then I get somebody like Jessica whose content continues and continues to deliver. If you want to get the rest of the interview, I didn't edit out anything. It's at the podcastreport.com 81. You can get an MP3 of the rest of the interview. You can get my interview hacks PDF that I spoke to here. You can get a link to the video of the entire interview. Would love to have you do that. But I do try to keep the podcast report as short as possible. This chunk certainly enough to go with in the future. We're going to be exploring podcasting interviews. Podcast interviews, the technology that's available, the services that are available, the hacks that are available and help you go deeper into this. Regardless of what we think, interviews are a big part of podcasting. And, and, well, we're going to continue to explore that over the next couple of weeks of the podcast report. So if you want the rest. Thepodcastreport.com 81 if this is enough to keep you going, you got what you need. I'll chat with you next week. Bye.