Red Flags for Podcast Guests: How to Spot 'Em

Today, we're looking at the one trait of a bad podcast guest.

Welcome to youo Podcast Consultant.

Small Lessons with Big Value.

With more than a decade of experience and millions of downloads, this hall of fame podcaster is a featured speaker, author, and mentor to thousands.

Now he wants to work with you.

He's your podcast consultant, Dave Jackson.

I've been actively pursuing being on other podcasts, and I use podmatch a lot.

I'll put a link to that out in the show notes.

And another1 is podcastguests.com Again, links in the show notes.

And the one thing I never ask as I'm looking at it, is how many downloads does this person get?

I'm not looking for a big audience.

Not that I will turn that down, but what I'm really focusing on is, is it the right audience?

Are they entrepreneurs?

Are they people looking to get the word out?

Are these creative people?

You know, are these small businesses looking to promote their business?

Those are people I'm trying to get in touch with.

Those are podcasters or potential podcasters.

And so I really don't care how many downloads you have, if you have the audience I'm trying to get.

Now, I do the same thing when I'm looking for a guest, and that is, does that person have the content that will deliver value to my audience?

And I will reach out to them and I will say, hey, I notice you talk about blank.

I'm thinking of doing an episode on that.

Would you be interested in coming on my show?

If the first question I get from them is, I don't know, how big is your audience?

That's right there.

Red flag.

And now I get it that, you know, some people are busy, they don't have time, so they only do certain shows.

I totally get that.

But when it's like the knee jerk first reaction, that to me is a red flag.

That is a sign that they're not looking to serve your audience.

It is all about them.

What can they get from your audience?

Not what can they give to your audience.

Another one that always kind of rubs me the wrong way is going back.

Let's put our other hat back on.

Now, I'm a guest, and they've asked me to be a guest, and I'd be, oh, I'd be happy to be on your show.

And everything they want to know about me is you're going to promote me, right?

You're going to promote me, right?

You're going to promote me, right?

Okay, easy.

Yeah, I'll promote it.

I always do.

But I Always say, I will honestly promote it, Because I do.

I always throw it on social and things like that.

But if you want me to play a clip of it on the show, it's got to be something besides what was podcasting like in 2005.

And I don't mind answering that question.

I don't mind.

I've just answered it a lot.

And I realize not everybody can answer that, but, you know, you gotta ask some different questions, because my audience has heard that answer at least 15 times now.

I get it.

You gotta ask different questions.

But I always think it's odd when the first thing out of their mouth is, how big is your audience?

And you're gonna promote me, right?

You're gonna promote me, right?

Because if you're relying on the guest to promote, I kind of want to go, is.

Isn't that your job?

Like, is this the only way you're looking to promote your show?

Because it's not really.

This is how I view it.

The role of the guest is to bring value, and then you promote it.

And yeah, if you ask me different questions and it's not the same old, same old kind of interview I've done, I'll promote it to my audience.

But really, that's your job.

It's like when I used to play in bars as a musician, and people always thought, well, the bar will promote us.

No, they're not.

They're not in the band promoting business.

They're in the beer selling business.

And our job is to bring the audience in.

And so we did our best to be as entertaining as possible to play music that people wanted to dance to.

That's the other thing we realized.

We're not in the music business.

We're in the dancing business.

You know why?

Because people that dance are thirsty, and people that are thirsty drink beer.

It's a great combination.

And so one of the things we did to set ourselves apart is we would go into the bar, you know, a couple weeks beforehand, and we had giant posters made, and nobody did that.

And it made us look like we were a big deal.

And consequently, we ended up being kind of a big deal.

By the time I was done with that band.

We played a couple different fairs, 2000s of people.

And that's cool when you look out and you see that, but you have to realize what business you're in.

And so as a guest, my role, when I go on shows, I go listen to their show.

I really want to know who the audience is, because I'm there to get people to come over and sign up at the school of podcasting.

So I got to know who I'm talking to.

So I don't talk over their head, under their head.

You know, I want to resonate with that audience.

And then as a host, I want to do my research and ask those questions that are different than the last 10 interviews for this person so they will promote it.

And then when I'm not doing interviews, it's my job to grow the show.

And a very generic, but it's very true way to grow your show is to know who your audience is, go to where they are, make friends with them, and then tell them about your show.

If you just go to where these people are and start talking about your show, you're going to look like a spammer.

So it's all about relationships.

And for me, that's the other thing.

When it comes to interviews, the biggest benefit are the relationships you build with these people.

Don't let the last time they be.

Were on your show be the last time you talked to them.

Reach out every now and then, just say, hey, how's everything on your side of the glass?

Something like that.

Just to, you know, because you want people like, for me, when I'm on somebody's show, I want to reach back out.

And that way, if they happen to run into somebody that's like, yeah, I'm thinking of starting a podcast, they go, oh, I got a guy for you, Dave Jackson.

That's really.

To me, the biggest benefit of doing interviews is you grow your network.

You want to grow your influence, Do a solo show.

Want to do, you know, want to grow your network, do interviews.

If you need help with either of these, check out schoolofpodcasting.com I've got courses on all things interviews and how to read cord remotely.

It's all there@schoolofpodcasting.com and because you're a listener, you can use the coupon code listener.

When you sign up for either a monthly, and this is new, quarterly or yearly subscription, people were saying, hey, how come the yearly people get a discount?

I'm like, well, because they're committing to doing this for a year.

And they're like, oh.

And I'm like, what about three months?

Let's.

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And that seems to be going over gangbusters.

So that's great.

And when you use the coupon code, not only will you get a discount because you're ordering a quarter, but you get a discount because, you guessed it, you're a listener.

I'm Dave Jackson.

I help podcasters.

It's what I do.

And I can't wait to see what we're going to do together.