Celebrity Podcast Interviews: How to Choose the Right Podcast Guests That Helps Your Show

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Hey everyone, welcome to Feed you'd Brands. This is one of our client coaching call topics and today we're going to talk about celebrity interviews. Will celebrity interviews help your show? Will it hurt? How do you get them? Like, we're going to kind of go around that a lot of people think that getting a celebrity on their show is an absolute magic bullet. Like if I could just get so and so to be on my show, then I'm going to have tons of listeners. I'm going to hit a million downloads. All of that is going to work out for you. And for those of you who have been taking interviews already, you know, the incremental progress from even doing people within your niche, people who are extremely relevant, can be a lot slower than that.

Celebrities may not be all that different for you. That being said, there's some really highlighted exceptions in the group. So celebrities who start their own podcast do extremely well, but they put money behind them and whoever's sponsoring them is putting a lot of money behind promoting their show, bringing them forward and into the marketplace and getting them subscribers and listeners. So it's not just on the celebrity name that it is, they're doing a lot of advertising and marketing. So it's not enough just to have them on your show. It can bring much needed credibility if there's a fit. So let's talk about some of the criteria that I go on. So if I have a celebrity that I want to bring on the show and I'm thinking about them and I'm thinking about, you know, do I want them? Is this going to help bring me listeners? The reality is like, hey, I don't want to just tap into any celebrity. I don't want just any Kardashian. I don't want someone who just has a million followers. I want them to be the right followers for my show at the end of the day. So if they're not, if I have got a health and wellness podcast, I don't want someone who isn't an absolute influencer in addition to being a celebrity in the health and wellness world. So maybe it's Jillian Michaels you want on your show, you know, something like that if you're in the fitness arena. So thinking about who you want, that is a right fit who's going to bring not only credibility of who they are in your industry. So that celebrity is going to transfer into authority to you. Because remember, whenever you are the host, you have a higher authority than anyone on your show. They are invited guests. You have the authority own that, believe that. Because if you're going to do celebrity interviews, you're going to have to maintain that level of integrity and control and curation for your audience. And that's why choosing your celebrity wisely is really important. So that's my number one thing, is that I really want to make sure I'm choosing someone who's going to add credibility from the industry to me by my being associated with him or her. And at the same time, it's also going to make sure and bringing really relevant, important information that isn't just a bunch of sound bites they could get from anywhere. Because remember, that's the other problem with celebrities. They're everywhere. So they've been interviewed on tons of different shows. You know, Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey, like back when whoever's new today, Ellen's interviewed them. Right? Whoever has interviewed them, they've asked them questions. They've gone deep into these things. So your job is not to ask them the same questions that everybody else asks. Your job is to bring whatever's extremely relevant to your audience and your show back to them. And when you can do those things, get a high authority and a really relevant, undiscussed bit of information match to your show topic, you're going to keep your audience engaged, they're going to share the episode with others. That celebrity boost is going to start to happen, but it's not going to be a viral spike. It's very rare that that happens now. How can it happen? Well, wtf? Not wtfff? My very first podcast, but wtf? Marc Marone's podcast made it. I mean, it got put on the map by the fact that he had Obama on his show and never had a president before. Never. And in this case, I think it was a candidate. Cause he was still running at the time, but never had one on a podcast before. So it was a new media, which was interesting. So everyone was covering it. It was picked up by every news media outlet that President Obama had done this show. So that's what got him on the map. It was not the actual interview itself. Now, the interview was quite the get right it was quite a coup to get that interview, but it happened to be match with what the publicists and the new media that they were out there looking for. They were out there looking for something grassroots and something like that. So that's why it worked. Right. So thinking about how you can find that person who, let's say you have a podcast on recovery and you know, someone who's very, not very vocal about it, see if you can get them to come on and talk about it, maybe that's time for them, maybe it's right for them to talk about this, maybe they want to, or health issues or other things that maybe they don't talk about really often. Or more importantly, maybe it's a hot topic and extremely important to them. So we have a celebrity in LA that I work with and he is passionate, passionate about adhd, children and ADD and all of that. And he will do anything. Autism, like all of that sort of arena of behavioral and mental health disorders that happen in children are extremely important to him. And he will talk about it any chance that he gets. Does he get to talk about it on air? Not very often. Not when you're doing a five minute bit on Entertainment Tonight or something like that. He doesn't get to talk about what he loves to talk about. So inviting him on to be able to talk about something that he's so passionate about, his social good enterprise, something that's close to his heart, that could be your inroad, if it's a match to your show, if it makes a difference for you. So that's one of the best ways to get in, is to make sure that it's matched to something that they're personally passionate about and that they don't get enough coverage about. Obviously they get enough so that you know about it, like you know it's important to them, but not so much that that's something that they get to promote and talk about enough, because that is why they're involved with the organizations that they're involved with. It's why they've devoted themselves to that social good, because they care about it. So if they can make that happen, then you may be able to get them on your show. So let's talk about some ways to reach out to those celebrity guests because they're not as accessible or are they. So first things first. My number one thing is you must do a lot of research. You want to make sure that you're researching heavily enough about the celebrities to know that you've gone beyond the surface, beyond their Wikipedia page or their IMDb page. Right. You're gone deeper into that. So you want to make sure you've gotten details on where they are, what's their social profiles, go check through them. If you read their social profiles, if you read through their Twitter, if you read through their LinkedIn, and if you read through their Facebook or their Instagram, wherever they are, you'll be able to tell distinct difference between the one that they participate in and the one that's crafted by a team. You'll be able to tell the difference. So for instance, you can tell the difference when we post in Facebook about our episodes. You can clearly tell that's not my voice. When I post in LinkedIn, though, there's usually a deep opinion, like very opinionated statements that are made there. Viewpoints that are a lot deeper things that make you actually read the article, not just touches on the topic. Because that's who I am, right? I go deep into a subject and then glean out an insight and I share that insight with my audience. But I'm a LinkedIn person, I'm not a Facebook person, so that's where I share it as well.

So keeping in mind that you really want to make sure that you get them where they are. So if I did an interview with someone on the Secret Life of Weddings, so the host of the Secret Life of Weddings, and they got someone on their show by reaching out through Twitter and being funny. So he was a comedian, they reached out through Twitter. They knew his daughter had just gotten married, and so they reached out to him and they bonded over that and had this funny conversation in Twitter and then made a private message and asked to have him on their show. And he did it, right, because they established that rapport. They commented on things, they made him feel good about, the funny things he was posting about his daughter's wedding, right? They paid attention to things that mattered to him and they built a rapport and they knew he was actually there making those posts. It was not some media team. And so that made a huge difference in them being able to reach out and get them on the show. So that in and of itself could be your way as well. So don't go straight for the ask, but do ask, because if you don't ask, you'll never get there. But go in with building a rapport of interest in that person, right? People are flattered by the fact that you're interested in what I'm interested in. We bond over that, even if it's superficial online and social media. Right. There's a little bit of bonding over a commonality. It's a human trait. So make that happen. And then when you're there, then build that into the ask. And that's the power of, if you don't ask, it's never going to happen. You don't know what media team they have. You don't know how interested they are in reaching their core audience. When there's a deep match between you and their core fans, they don't want to disappoint them either. So if they can make that happen, they will. Now, usually it's a scheduling nightmare. And so all I can say to you is that be extremely flexible. Like, whatever it takes, Upend your day. I mean, obviously, don't miss your daughter's recital. But beyond that, try to make sure that you're as flexible as possible to make that interview happen because it's important to you. So if they give you a time, you take it, you show up, you're early, you do everything you need to do to make sure that it goes extremely well. So, anyway, these are some things that I've gleaned from this over time. So one of the important things that I have done over time is by doing the deep research, I can usually find that first question. And that first question is, what's going to bond you in these celebrity interviews? Because they do tons of these interviews, and they'll program it in, like, they'll, you know, they'll call it in, right? Like, they'll just do, like, sound bite after sound bite after sound bite, right? So you have to get through those layers of things. So I tell this story pretty frequently, but for different reasons. But I interviewed John Travolta on a red carpet somewhere at an event. And I was shocked that they wanted me to interview John Travolta because I write a column for Inc. Magazine on innovation and product development. So, like, I didn't understand what that had to do with making movies or with anything that he had to do. However, I knew that he loved to fly, and he was a big proponent of that. And so I thought maybe he might have an understanding of the fact that 3D printing was up and coming in aerospace at the time, and it was going to change the way that parts and supplies were made in long maintenance in remote areas. And so I thought, okay, maybe that I can ask them and I could work that into an article in addition to, like, some general questions. So I went with the general questions first. Got really programmatic answers. In fact, it turned out if you hear the story that I tell elsewhere that I got the exact same answers as two other people who were writing articles and doing interviews, exactly the same words. It was like a memorized script, so I couldn't use that. Luckily, I did ask him about the 3D printing thing at the end as my last question. Now, he had no idea, no idea at all what 3D printing is, so I kind of had to explain it. But as soon as I said supplies in remote areas, no waiting for replacement parts, like that kind of thing, he jumped on board. And you could see the passion. He lit up. He starts talking. He was excited. He gave a very excited answer of how if this really helps the younger industry popping up and more things popping up and making aerospace popular again, he was all for it in whatever way, and if it improved the cost and maintenance of planes, he definitely was for that. And so this is what he says to me. But he was lit up, totally different demeanor, and I hit a hot button for him. And I guarantee you, if I had known enough about the aerospace industry, I'm sure that he would have kept talking to me. I'm sure he wouldn't have moved on the line at that moment if I could have asked another question. So this is where you build the rapport. So doing the deep research, and if it's core and in your expertise, which that obviously was not, there will be. That respect will happen and that mutual respect, and they won't cut you short. I have done interviews where they went way longer, or their team is trying to pull them out of there, and they're like, no, I want five more minutes here. Because they know that my audience and their missions are matched. So when you can make that happen, you can make for a very successful interview. And that's where the final thing that happens when you get a celebrity interview, which is your goal all along, was you wanted it to boost your show, right? You wanted it to boost the numbers. So in order to do that, you want to make sure that they share it. Because if the PR team just does their typical share and it doesn't happen personally and authentically, their audience knows it. But when it is shared authentically and personally and they're excited about it, and they share it out, and they're like, I had so much fun on this interview, or like, we did some cool things. You guys got to listen to this show. This host is off the chart. Like, whoa, yay, Right? That's what you want, is that kind of reaction because they lived in the moment of you having conducted an amazing interview. Where you showed such deep respect and interest in their interest. It translates into great interest for your audience. All of those things together, they share it. And now you truly have the boost you were looking for. Right now, all of that is going on for you and that's the way that you can really make the most about it.

Now, one last thing that I want to touch on before I go and I go back to my coaching call and we do questions and answers, is that there's a distinct difference between a celebrity and an influencer. An influencer is not at a celebrity level at all. They're in the business of influencing, meaning that they become a health and wellness influencer. It doesn't mean that they became a celebrity through some other method, like they were on television and became a celebrity or they were an expert in fitness, like Jillian Michaels. She started doing more television and got a TV show and became a celebrity. Like that's the process there. An influencer can become a celebrity, but they are not a celebrity to begin with. Influencer strategies are something completely different. It's a more of a business model strategy than celebrity. Celebrity is a popularity boost, right? I'm being associated with someone who loves aerospace. So by getting John Travolta on my show. Woohoo. If I had an aerospace show, of course, right? So these are the kinds of things that you're looking for is you're looking for the celebrity boost that matters. And that's at the end of the day, everyone's like, I just. If I could just get, you know, Oprah on my show, if I could just get so and so on my show, I'll have it made. You know what? You won't. It's not any different than the guests you're getting right now. In some respects, it only is great if you can make it work out great. If it's a direct match, if their audience is a match, and if they genuinely share it, then you can make it great. But again, no guarantee that their followers are going to become your followers. They follow them for various reasons. They love their movies, they love their TV shows, they love the product, they love some of the things that they do. They don't love everything about them. And they may not be as passionate about their health and fitness or about their social good enterprise. They may not have that matchup. So just because they have millions of followers and millions of fans out in the world doesn't mean that that will translate to your show. In addition, because their fans are also used to them hawking stuff, right? Think Kardashians right? They're used to them hawking stuff left and right, and so they don't have that same value of it. They will automatically associate the fact that it was a paid spot, that it's a sponsorship of some kind. They just assume that anyway, so you have to be really cognizant about it. Is this worth the effort for you? And if it's at the end of the day, if the content is so exciting to you and you can't wait to talk to this person, your audience is going to be excited about it too, and that's a value that's worth pursuing. But if you are simply doing it to boost your numbers, I think you're going to be sadly disappointed in the end. I have seen it work out very, very rarely. So anyway, that's my take on how celebrity interviews may or may not help boost your podcast.

You've been listening to the Feed you'd Brand podcast. We'd love to hear your comments on today's show, as well as suggestions for future topics and guests. Visit us online@feedyourbrand.co or on Social dyourbrand. Thanks for exploring content marketing and podcast influence with us.