Tips To Make Podcast Guest Booking Easier To Please Guests

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Hey, everyone, welcome to Feed. You'd brand on Tom Hazard, your host for today. And I want to share with you some things to consider for your podcast. Those of you that interview guests, whether you do it regularly, every episode, or you do it periodically or occasionally, simplifying the guest booking process can really be a way that you can impress your guests and make it easy for them and make them want to be a guest on your show rather than annoying them. And I know that last part is going to sound a little bit maybe disconcerting. Annoying them, really? Does my process for booking guests annoy them? Well, depends on how you're doing it. There are. I'll tell you that podcast guests will be much happier if the process is friction free. Pretty simple. You don't make them do an awful lot of homework, especially just to schedule that time with you and get to the point of the fun part, actually being on your show. And I'm going to give you some examples and some pros and cons. You know, and, and honestly, there's no absolute right or wrong way to do this, but I do think it's important that all you podcast hosts out there consider this. Evaluate your own process, hold up a mirror to yourself. That's one of the hardest things it is for anybody to do. I think, especially in podcasting. We all like to think, oh, our show is great and everybody loves it, and why wouldn't you want to be a guest on my show? Right? But really make sure. Have you gone through your own guest booking process? Have you tried it? To actually go through the processes if you're a guest, if you haven't, I really highly recommend you do it or have someone else that you know and trust who's willing to go through it, even if they're not going to be a guest, just test it out and get their feedback. Because there is a fine line. And I know that me as a podcast host, I don't want to have to chase down a guest to get their headshot, to get their bio, to get some of the things that I need to be able to give to my production team to do the work that I need them to do so we can promote the episode, so we can give proper social media share assets to the guest. You know, hope so. Hopefully they'll share it. I want my job as a host to be easy and for that, yeah, I've set up a booking calendar link that has them, requires them to fill out certain pieces of information and provide things like their headshot and their bio. Social share, social media handles things like that in order to get them to, to for order for them to be able to book a time on my calendar. And that's really important. You don't want to have to send five emails back and forth trying to schedule something and then they didn't send you what they need to and they get too busy and the email gets buried. And then, you know, after that you may find you're actually, you've recorded the episode and they still haven't provided you what you need and you're chasing them down for it before it's going to publish. It's a very bad situation and very frustrating for us, the host. So I understand that certainly from the perspective of a host. Sorry, yeah, a host. Yeah, I said that. Right. But then when it comes to the guest, if we have a lot of obstacles in the path for them to even get to the fun part, we can annoy them so much, they're like, forget it, it's not worth it to me. I'm not even booking this call. And what I mean by that is some people have. And I'm not going to out anyone in this podcast, just so you know. So if you're hoping I'm in a dish on, you know, this is a podcast, isn't doing it right. Not really going to do that. But I am going to share anonymously some experiences. Some have been with clients of ours at Potatoes, and some have been experiences that I have had being a guest on other shows and other things that people have shared with us. We had customer with I just thought was one of the best cover arts that I've ever seen for a podcast. Really liked it and their guest booking process. First you had to go to a page that had a questionnaire and it was like, it's an application to be a guest.

Now, there are times when that's appropriate and I'm going to come back to that. But for the moment, if you are a relatively new podcaster, you've been doing it for, let's say, less than six months and you're putting up this questionnaire that really feels More like an application where the guest has to justify why they're worthy to be a guest on your show, then provide answer all sorts of questions before either they're going to be able to book or if you're going to get back to them later, they can't even book the time. You're just having them fill up this form to even get past that gate to at some point after that be able to book on your schedule. You're not going to get an awful lot of guests or a lot of maybe the ones you'd want to have being willing to complete that. Or they may pawn off something like that too. If they have an assistant, an, you know, an admin or executive assistant or something that that would fill it out forum. You're, you know, you're going to get sort of secondhand information. But then, you know, if you annoy their executive assistant, that's not going to really help you very much either. So you really want to think about the context of where you are in your podcasting journey. Is this a brand new podcast? Do you have a big name? Do you have a large following? Do you have a really deep list of potential guests that you can draw from? Then maybe you're in a better position to have people apply. But usually with a new podcaster and with a host that even if you're known really well in certain circles, but maybe not in a broader sense, you really want to make this easy for people. And some of them it may be easier for you to just pick up the phone, have a call, hey, would you like to be on the podcast and schedule it? And then maybe you do in those early days, want to collect what you need from them later or ask if they'd be willing to email it to you and hope they do and have to chase them down later if they don't. You got to think about where you are and in the context of things. Now, of course, I really do recommend, as I said up front in this episode, you do want to organize yourself. It actually puts a makes a good impression, a professional one that you're organized and here's how you book to be on the podcast, go to this link, collect some basic information, some just a few of those critical things needed to make the process easier and so you can follow through with production and communication of everything you need to. But when you start having these complex applications or if you're going to make them connect a certain way, like I've had this happen and 10, 12 years ago maybe was a little more accepted Today, it's really not. Is that, oh, I only do all my podcast interviews on Skype. So if you're not a Skype member, you need to go sign up, get an account with Skype, and you're going to connect with me there. I've still had that happen very recently. And I got to tell you, Skype is pretty old school in the world of video meetings across the Internet. And I have met lots of people who just do not want to go sign up and get another account somewhere in order to be able to be interviewed by you on your podcast. I mean, I still have an old Skype account, but can't even remember the last time I logged into it. And I'd have to look up my username and password somewhere. And that was probably before I was using a Password Manager Like LastPass, where it'd be pretty easy to just type it in and go. So even things like that will be really annoying or can be annoying or create friction and tension with your guest, which, again, is not really in the spirit of, I'm sure, the kind of relationship you want to foster with the guest. Especially if your show is one where your ideal guests hopefully someday will become your ideal client or customer, the last thing you want to do is make it hard for them. So if there are any systems, processes, tools you use that can make it easier for that guest, like just giving them a single link that they click from any phone or computer browser, and boom, they're right into meeting with you, Obviously, that's going to be a better experience. And then, you know, in terms of the other thing that's going to make the process in terms of guest booking go really, really well, is if your booking calendar is already setting up and providing them the actual meeting link, whether it's a unique one or a regular recurring one, I do recommend you use a system that creates a unique meeting ID for every single podcast episode. And that way you don't accidentally have somebody come into your meeting as a party crasher. And let me explain that a little more. So let's say you're going to use Zoom for most of your guest interviews, and you just give people out your main personal meeting id, which you can do. It will work. You know, it's that basically that's a meeting. You, the owner of the Zoom account, the host of the show, can launch at any time. Okay. And you don't. You don't have to create a unique meeting id. You could give every guest the same meeting id, and you might think, well, that's Really a lot simpler for me, right? Well, it would be. The problem is if you. Somebody gets their signals crossed, their schedule mixed up, you're having this great conversation with a guest, and all of a sudden somebody pops into your Zoom meeting who you were not expecting because you forgot in Zoom to once you started that meeting, to choose that little option where you can lock the meeting.

There's a way to use a personal meeting ID for every recording and then prevent a party crasher from happening. But you have to remember to do it. And if you don't have a checklist of things that. Which I, by the way, also recommend that you have a checklist of. All right, here are all the things that I need to do here as I get my guest on the call before I'm going to hit record and start, you know, having that conversation, recording that episode checklist is not a bad idea, but most people won't do that. And just like I always suggest when you're using a tool like a Zoom. And it's not that Zoom's the only tool, really. I mean, Zoom isn't paying me anything. I don't have a dog in this, this fight, really. But there are many tools out there you can use. And once you. I do recommend, for instance, you set that system to record automatically. So can't tell you how many times I've had people, people reaching out to me, an email or calling me on the phone that are, you know, customers who are saying, you know, they're practically crying because they had this wonderful discussion with this guest and they forgot to record. They forgot to hit record. And then they tell me, I tell them, I'm, you know, they, they ask me, is there any way we can get that back? Is there any way that as if somewhere in the universe magically this call got recorded even though they forgot to hit record. I don't know why people think that that actually can happen, but it doesn't happen. And I'll tell you, nothing will annoy a guest even more. And I know this isn't part of the booking process per se, when I'm telling you that a guest is going to be incredibly annoyed when you have to tell them either you can't publish their episode or you're going to ask them if they would rebook and do it all over again with you because you forgot to press record. That's a very difficult conversation to have. And if this was a guest you're trying to get to hire you or to, you know, to be a client of yours, you are not really going to succeed with that one. Let me just put it that way. Okay. So as a part of your guest booking process, to create this friction free path to getting them from first agreeing and saying, yes, I'm willing to be a guest on your show to then, actually, you know, showing up on that call for the recording, you would want to. Whatever booking calendar system you use, whether it's a calendly or a oncehub or something else, they pretty much all have an integration with Zoom that you can connect so that when they create that appointment for that podcast interview, it's going to create a unique meeting ID that nobody else has. And you'll never have the potential of a party crusher coming in and interrupting what otherwise is a great conversation. That's one important point. And the second important point is the Zoom settings can be set so that that meeting, when it starts, automatically starts recording from the very beginning of that meeting so that you cannot possibly forget to record it. So that is a setting for those of you I'm not going to get into the in and out technical details, although we'll have a screenshot in the blog post for this episode of Feed your brand on poditize.com that'll show you where that setting is in Zoom. And just to give you a point you in the right direction, this is not something not a setting that you do in your local Zoom app on your computer. This is a setting for not only the meeting type that's a podcast interview meeting, but also sets it to automatically record. You have to go on the web to zoom us, log into your Zoom account on their website and there are then settings for the different types of meeting events you can create. You're going to create one that is specifically for podcast interview. It'll create a unique meeting ID every time and you'll set it to automatically record. Now another technical tip, just because it's on my mind, we still recommend you record locally. If you're using Zoom on your local computer and not record in the cloud, that also is one of those settings you can set in the meeting type. And even though it's something you're doing in the settings on Zoom on the web, it actually will create that meeting type and automatically record locally to your computer as long as you tell it to. This is a set it up, set this meeting time up once and done connecting it with calendly and then any time someone books that interview with you, it's going to set it all up for you automatically. It's going to email the Guest. Now, a couple other suggestions for making this guest booking process. A one that's going to impress them, impress the guest and which is really what you want. Whether you're mining them to be a client or that's just someone you want to show them respect because they're giving you their time for free. Most likely to be a guest on your show is that as you're asking them for these questions or asking these questions and providing information, their headshot, their web address, their email, their bio, all this good stuff, you can actually have information within there that says you can give them a little, I would say just a announcement that this is so that we can properly present you in social media and on our website and give you the credit that you deserve as guest. I mean, you can give them the good reason why you're collecting some of this information and you can do that either within the booking calendar or you can do it with another. You know, you can have it be a page on your website where it's an application and they just fill it out and then it'll, it'll book. But you can do it within a lot of the calendar programs directly. But then it's a little more impressive. It's in the follow up too. A lot of these systems, they'll send obviously a calendar invite to them, but it can also send that guest an email and, and if you give them just a little information about what to expect with the recording session and some tips, you know, and you can say, hey, if you're new to being a podcast guest so that they know you're not being condescending, if you're not new, they can skip it. But if they're new to being podcast guests and you give them a few tips to prepare them for what to expect and recommendations for best practices for recording that they use a headset to listen. If they have a USB microphone or something, even better, please use that, you know, a couple of these things, letting them know if it's going to be a video recorded and published as well, so that they know, hey, this is going to be a video. So just be aware then, so that they know, oh, I got to think about what's behind me and do I want to show that? Is that, okay, so friction free, really important. But if you really are going to be asked, here's the thing that I think is one of the most annoying things I've ever experienced as a guest. Okay? If the host's questions on this questionnaire or application or, you know, in the process before even Booking the appointment. If that guest is asking me, what things should I ask you about? What things do you want me to ask you? It's like, wait a second, you're not willing to do a little homework or have a pre call with me, you haven't already figured that? If you're wanting me to do the work of telling you how to conduct your own podcast, I may run the other direction and say, nope, not interested. So I, I find that sometimes a lot of podcasters do that. They try to podcast hosts, they make it, try to make it so that instead of showing that guest respect by having done a little homework on them, just a little googling, they'll go to their own website, learn a little about them. I mean, why did you want them on the show in the first place? I mean, hopefully there was some reason you had some curiosity and I think you should be coming to that with your own plan for what to talk about. And that may have involve a call ahead of time to have a discussion to formulate some things if they're willing or maybe you met them at an event, things like that, so you've hopefully you had some conversation. But if your form is so generic and is really probing them deeply, there's a difference between respecting them and requesting that they provide some information for accuracy, or if there's anything new and noteworthy that maybe isn't obvious from checking them out on their website or looking at their social media profile or whatever, that's fine. But really asking what questions should I ask you or what do you want me to ask you? That's like, who's the host of the show? Are they the host of the show? Are you the host of the show? I think you should not be asking your guest to do the work of preparing whatever questions you're going to ask them. And I have seen shows do this. So to me, as a podcast host, that's really annoying. And I'm going to be like, nope, next. So other things you can do is to sort of show an example in the guest booking process. And if you're using a form on your website or a form in some other tool, a type form, or whatever you might have, if you are, you can show them an example of a past podcast host and all of the different things that you do for them to make them look good. And again, this can be sort of showing them the good reason why that it's worth it for them to spend a little time and provide their headshot and maybe, I don't know if you want their logo for their company or provide a little more information because you're going to make them look good and you're going to give them materials to promote after the episode is live. That's going to make them look good. They might see you have a quote graphic of something you said about a past guest that made that guest look good. That's very flattering. And they might think, oh, wow, that's great, I could share that. On social, I better think about a good quote or I better say something profound or give them a reason to highlight me. So showing them an example of some of the things you do for social media assets, maybe that's an audio gram, maybe that's a video meme or a video clip, maybe it's just a quote graphic and lots of potential things. So I think setting expectations for the value they're going to get, the exposure they're going to get, and you know, that will make them not only willing to provide the information, but even more excited to be a guest on your show.

All right, so really, I'm sure there are, depending on your niche, your podcast, your unique goals for your show, you may think of some additional things that might impress the guest or the potential guest or make more of a friction free booking process. But just think about it. And again, it's just like one of these things I've said on past podcast episodes. It shocks me how many podcasters never listen to their own episodes. And I'm not saying you have to listen to every episode. No one wants to listen to themselves, you know, week after week after week. But spot checking them. I mean, so many people don't listen to their own show and they don't realize, oh my gosh, that intro is a mile long. Maybe I want to shorten that up. If people are listening episode after episode and they've heard that every time, same type of thing here with the guest booking process. Just if you have one, go through it, have your mom go through it, have your sister go through it, have somebody go through it who you trust. If you don't want to do it yourself, but I would recommend you do it and say, does this all make sense or is this one maybe annoying? And by the way, last little tip about this guest booking process, make it really easy for your guest to check a box that says I agree to be recorded and have my interview published. There's all kinds of different ways people have this, but get them to have to actually check a box which is a release and you're they're acknowledging they're giving you permission to record them and publish them. And don't make that like a book or they have to actually sign a release. I think those, you know, you can do that if you want to. Some people who I've met who are podcasters and are lawyers go to that extent. But I think that can not put the best tone in place that, you know, energetically the energy around, oh my gosh, I'm signing my life away to an attorney just to be on their podcast or to anybody, really. So I like to have a pretty clear statement, a couple sentences about acknowledging they're going to be recorded and they're giving permission to do it. And they can't even book the appointment unless they do that. But it's friction free. They're just checking a box, that's all. If they don't check that box when they try to book the call, it'll say, please complete all the required steps. They have to go and check that box. You're just putting them on notice, making it very clear. Again, friction free. So that's my recommendations. I guess that's, that's probably enough for today. I mean, how much can I really go on about the guest booking process? But the message is please simplify it, make it smooth, friction free. And you can impress your guests with how organized and professional you are. Even if you're not organized and professional. Got news for you. I mean, I think I'm professional, but I'm really not all that organized. I need lots of other tools to organize things for me and this is one you can do one time. It's organized, it's professional, it impresses people. So. All right, folks, thanks for listening. We'll be back next time with another hopefully helpful, useful and valuable episode for you here on Feed. You'd brand until then, have a good one.

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