Make The Perfect Podcast Guest Introduction To Excite Listeners & Win Clients

Want your podcast and videocast to be seen, heard, found, and rewarded in this noisy digital world, you are not alone. Join the nonprofit community at Podcasters United and podcast industry experts Tom Hazard and Tracy Hazard as they debunk all that outdated and bad advice you've been getting from the podcast gurus and find out what actually works. Today, get ready to finish feed your brand with smart cut tactics proven to cast your original voice to the world.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Feed you'd brand. I'm Tom Hazard along with co host Tracy. Today we're going to talk about making the perfect podcast guest introduction to excite listeners and win clients. Those are two very different things, Tracy, aren't they?

Right, but the two points to having a guest on is either you're using them to lead, generate for your business. Now, they might become referral partners and not actually clients, but it's still eventually winning a client in the process, or you're getting them to share your show and that's how you're exciting listeners. Right? That's the main point of having guests on our show. Plus, have a little fun and learn something in the meantime. Those are nice to haves, but the business purpose of having a guesting strategy, of doing guest interviews is all about getting more listeners and eventually winning clients somewhere in that process. So why not have our guest introductions do a lot of the heavy lifting for us, and that is build that rapport right at the beginning of our phone call, right at the beginning of our interview, and get it going from the very beginning so that they want to share more freely, they are much more open on the call, and they're more excited about making a relationship with you.

Well, that sounds perfect. I think any podcaster who is using a guest strategy at all or having guests occasionally on their show would be interested in this. So what is that perfect guest introduction, Tracy?

Well, for me, it's three parts. One is, of course, the bio that they gave you. You want to make sure that you have that. But I like to sandwich in between two things. First, I want to tell people who are listening to my show why I invited this person on. So I want to give them context. So sometimes it's a really fun story. Melissa Monte, I met her actually at Social Media World in San Diego at a meetup event. Never met her before, but it's a podcast event. She had just launched her show like two days before. It's called the Mind Love Podcast. And she was just like a bundle of energy, right? And so when she came on my podcast, I had Forgotten that I had met her there until like I did the conversation with her. Now luckily I do the intro after. So I was able to recapture that and reiterate the story as the intro to why she came on. So it wasn't a direct correlation, but I understood. It's like it was something about her bubbly energy that attracted me to her and why it's attracting binge listeners to her show. Right? Perfect segue into why she's there and then do her intro and kind of give some pieces of information about her. And then before I go onto it, because I record my intros after my introduction to the guest, after I've done the interview, I have the opportunity to tell people what they're going to miss if they don't keep listening. And so I have a chance to get them excited. And so I try to give them one thing that's going to get them really excited about listening on and that they're not going to want to miss. Right. So I create this bio sandwich is what. You know, I've never heard you call.

It that before, but I like it.

So anyway, that's what I do in my interest now. Some people just go straight in and read the intro. Some people just start right in. And that's the one where I have the most problems with. When I hear a show that just starts right into the conversation or forces the guest to do the introduction for you, I could tell you right there, you can hear it in the voice of the guest. The guest feels that this is unprofessional and you've lost that relationship building opportunity right then and there. So to prevent that, because I don't do the intro with them listening to prevent that, I clearly tell them that I'm professionally introducing them and I'm friendly and I have a pre conversation, I don't just like start up and dive in with them so that they feel like. And I said it's going to sound like we are starting in, jumping in, like we're jumping in. But that's okay. But never in that process did I make them introduce themselves. That feels really unprofessional. And I can guarantee you by the end of it they're running from that phone call. They can't wait to get off of the interview and that happens. So I just had it happen today. I was just interviewing someone today and at the end of the interview she was like, I've done so many guest interviews and I just had a really good time there. That was so great. Normally I can't Wait to get off this call, but now I have questions for you. I got my relationship building started right then and there, and I'm on my way to winning clients because of that. She's going to become a client because I did that right at the very beginning and set that tone in your introduction is a tone for your audience, but also for your guest.

Now, Tracy, everybody may have different goals, different purposes. What works right for you may not necessarily work right for others. Right? I mean, I like the way you do it. I tend to do something similar when I'm doing a guest interview for my podcast is I will also just jump right in, let them know I'm going to introduce them later after I've gotten to know them better, after I know what we talked about in the interview. And then I can also tease to the audience as to some of what they're going to expect or experience in the interview. So they have an expectation that builds anticipation. It gets them like, oh, that sounds great. Okay, I want to hear it. Let's get on with the interview. Right. But Saturday I was on somebody else's podcast that actually was a virtual summit. It was a virtual summit that ran last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and noon on Saturday was my time slot where I am presenting and adding value to this virtual summit audience. But it was also done a bit like a podcast interview because they're repurposing that virtual summit and each different participants segment as a podcast episode. So we didn't have the opportunity for that podcast host to introduce me to after having the experience. Now.

Yeah, because you're doing it in a live situation, like a live event. You have to do the intro at the time of it. It's like there's no choice in that. And that's fine. But, you know, then prepare a little bit ahead of time. Have that little bit of story about why Tom's on your stage, why he's at your live event. Right. Or why he's on your virtual event. Right. Have that prepared so that you can go into it. And if you don't know what Tom's going to really talk about at that point, you don't have quite the segue. But that doesn't mean that you can't do some kind of really great throw to Tom. That does a transfer of authority and that will make Tom feel as the guest there, make him feel like, wow, that was a really good segue into what I need to do. I don't have to like overdo and tell people about myself. Enough was covered there. So you do want to do that both at your live and virtual events, just like you might do it on your show. This is the thing. Look, if you are recording it after and the guests didn't hear it, that's okay. What I like to do is in my pre talk with them, in my little bit of chat is I just confirm a few things with them and it makes them feel confident. Oh, so you went to Rhode Island School of Design. Oh, what'd you study there? Okay, confirm that. Write that down. How do I pronounce your name? Am I saying it correctly? Right. So if I've covered a couple of those things, they just feel great about it. But what I'm doing is I'm teasing them to come back and listen to the episode. So how often do you go back after you've guest on a show and listen to the show?

Oh, I'd love to poll on that. Right, wouldn't you?

Yeah, I can guarantee you it's very rarely because I very rarely get anyone commenting, anyone saying anything back. That was the case before I started doing this. So I teased two things. One is that this intro is going to happen. I'm going to tell a story like I'm setting them up for this great intro that's going to happen. And then second, I also say I'm going to have some closing thoughts afterwards. So they want to hear what I have to say in case I contradicted them or in case I say anything different. So it makes people listen to the show. So usually we walk away from an interview feeling, well, that went really great. They're going to air it just like it was. Why do I need to listen to it again? It's fine, I'll just share it to my audience. But you don't take the time to listen to it. This helps make them listen. When they listen, they're now back in the moment of it and they're like, wow, that really was as good as I felt and as good as I thought it was. Now your relationship building again because you got them to listen to something even if the only part they listened to was that intro piece into the transition to the start of their show. And they didn't listen to the whole episode after that, but they got that part of it where you were raving about them. So now they feel good about themselves and they feel good about their relationship with you. So you've got that going. So that's why this intro piece is so critical. Really want to have a podcast guest introduction that is setting you up for Success on the sharing side and on the relationship building and client growth side.

Because really, when you think about it, Tracy, in that model, you're talking about the entire podcast episode, the interview is. Is an introduction of you to your guest.

Well, of you to each other. Right. But the process is going on there. But there has to be a little groundwork laid for your audience to have reference to it. And that's why I'm not a fan of letting your guests do the intro, because it makes them uncomfortable, because they don't know your audience. So they have this long resume and they don't know what's relevant. And too often I hear them and they like, well, I went to school at this and then I did this, and then. And it's boring. Right.

Puts me to sleep.

Right. And you don't want someone just spouting off their bio either. Right.

So, yeah, because you lose control, they're just going to go on and on and on. They think it's so important. And if they're reading it, that's the worst because it's very mechanical.

Pretty much most guests don't have it on reference like it was submitted in, and they don't have it on reference. So the couple of things that I do in my guest introduction is I do read the bio. I'm very careful about that because I've gotten problems with publicists and other people where when I made the bullet points, I wrote something wrong, I said it wrong. If I wasn't reading it, I didn't do something right by their messaging that they've carefully crafted. So I do read the bio, but I have a whole I'm going to call it off the cuff intro that is prepared ahead of time. I mean, that is before that and after that. Right. Like the segue portions, that sandwich piece that I was talking about before, that is in between the reading portion. So it's not as boring because that's all I did was come on, say, hey, welcome to the show, and then read the bio. Right. I didn't do that, but I did read it and I cut it. So usually I cut pieces out of it. Like, I make it shorter because usually when people submit it, it's like three times longer than it needs to be. But so I'll cut it down to what I consider to be the short intro.

And what I end up doing is if somebody who is interviewing me on a podcast ends up wanting me to introduce myself, I keep it really short. I really just cover the very basics about why the heck would you want to be hearing from me on this show, not a whole resume, a couple of real high points. And then I get right into providing them value. But I also let them know you can find out more about me on my website. Here it is. So that I can let that more polished and published bio do that work. And people that are curious are going to go find it out. But I find that I'm always doing better if I provide a lot of value within that episode. And that builds rapport with the audience right there. I don't need to preface it by so much of you should be listening to me because you know, that's very different. There are other people that it's very important. If you have a really high profile guest and you need to give them a proper introduction because you don't want to offend them, that's a little different. And you need to just be prepared to do that.

And then you might need to do that on air with them right then and there. What you never want to do is let them have the recording ahead of time and improve it. You should make it a policy never to do that or you're not a professional media outlet. No media outlet allows a review of that, otherwise it's bought. It's a bot spot. So we don't want to do that in this case. But if we feel like there's going to be sensitivity to it, then we want to do it live. So we will do our live intro, ask them to be quiet or mute them so that they can't say anything and then start in after that. But properly setting someone up is extremely important. It sets a tone of respect. And that's, I think what Tom was pointing out there is that setting that tone of respect treats them like a high profile guest, even if they aren't. Right. Treats them like an authority in what you're doing. And that's the whole point of relationship building, right? Because that's going to lead them to wanting to share the show and it's going to lead them to referring clients or referring other listeners. And that eventually reaches the business goals of your show.

I do find, especially if I know somebody really well, I know who they are and they're a guest on my show and I'm introducing them. I cover what I think is most important and why I think my audience should really listen to what they have to say. And that is a lot of times more meaningful than what their actual bio is, is you trust me, I'm the host of the show or you wouldn't be coming Back episode after episode, listening. I'm telling you why I brought you this guest, why I believe they're important, why they're valuable, why you should want to hear what they have to say.

Right? But the issue that I do hear, and this is a mistake that a lot of people make when you're buddies and you come on the show more than once, let's say what tends to happen is that maybe the first time you introduce them, but then the next time you don't, you treat it like, oh, everybody knows this is a recurring guest. This is my buddy on the show five times, whatever it is, and you don't give him a proper introduction again. So while you don't want to be repetitive, it doesn't mean you shouldn't frame him up and give him that authority or her that authority again. Right. You need to still do it professionally because you have new listeners. You don't know if they heard all those other shows. And so you're doing your guest a disservice, even though they're a friend of yours, of not doing the introduction. And I see that so often with that sort of buddy role is like, I just invited my best friend on, and that's great, but have a little story there, have a little history there. Give a little context to it. Give a different one than you gave last time, maybe a slightly different story about a different stage of your relationship. That's perfectly fine. It helps to segue. And then don't forget to reference the other episodes so that they're very sure if they want to get the full picture of who this person is, they can go back through it, because you're doing the listener a disservice by not giving it to them in one place. And we want to be friendly to our new listeners and not just our binge listeners. You know, we want to be friendly to both at the same time.

Yeah. Oh, that's a good subject for another time. I think it's a good subject for another podcast, how you speak to your audience, because especially with new podcasters, this can be a little disconcerting, the fact that you actually talk to your audience directly. You're not speaking in the third person. Right. You're speaking to your audience. And I go through that in strategy a lot with new podcasters. But it's also important that you make it so that the content is of interest, valuable, engaging, not boring for both the longtime listener and the new listener who's just found you this week.

And I want to add the context of what we're talking about right here. And also interesting and relationship building for, for your guest. That's your ultimate goal. That's when you hit the trifecta of all the things that you need to accomplish with your show. This is not complicated. I mean, it sounds like a lot to think about, but once you get in the role of this, once you find your rhythm for this, it is going to flow because it's super simple. You review a bio, you go, oh, these things are really important. I want to highlight them. I did a tiny little bit of research and I know this about this person. Otherwise I wouldn't have invited them on my show. I. I got a story to tell. These are simple things that you can do. They are not complex. They do not have to take a lot of time. We have a little cheat sheet that we use that is our show notes section that we kind of just make little notes when we're doing a recording. And I have the proper name at the top, sometimes phonetically spelled for myself. And I confirm that the name of the podcast show or their website or the name of something, whatever it is, that's really critically important, their book. And then I have the bio is usually printed separately or on my phone. And then I have just a couple little notes. Tell this story and say this. That's it. It's just two little notes to myself to trigger my memory and make sure that I'm ready for a really great. A perfect podcast guest introduction.

All right, well, why don't we leave it there, Tracy? I think that's great. Hey, if you have any questions about this, you can reach out to us@potatoes.com we also reach us at feed your brand. Do we still have a Facebook group for feed your brand?

We do not. We have everywhere on social media odditized. Just to make it simple for everyone, we are scaling down our social media just like so many others. So we are everywhere at potterties and you can go potatoes.com and feed your brand is right there as well.

All right, everyone, we'll be back next time with another great episode. This has been Tom and Tracy Hazzard on feed.

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