Effective Podcast Interview Research
Avoid pre-recording meetings and long questionnaires with effective podcast guest research so you focus on enjoying the conversation!
No. NO. nOOOOOO.
Have you heard these cringe interview questions at the beginning of a podcast?
So. How are you?
Tell us about you. Who are you, and all of that?
How’s your day so far?
What do you do?
I mean, at the watercooler, corporate chit chat is fine. It’s boring. But it’s fine.
Why do I detest those podcast interview questions at the start of a podcast?
The host instantly loses control, runs the risk of the guest going off about themselves, or may create a situation where getting back track will require an abrupt interruption or loss of flow.
This immediately shows your listener that you’re not confident, you’re a lazy interviewer, and you probably don’t care enough to make the guest sound great (as you should).
Why do people ask these questions? They either bothered to practice becoming a better communicator or they didn’t put in the effort to learn something interesting about their guest.
I recently connected with Michael who I don’t know well. Allow me to show you my process of extracting interesting details about a potential podcast guest.
The Profile
Allow me to introduce you to a new friend on LinkedIn, named Michael Akubeuz. First impression, to me, is that he has a little Pitbull energy mixed with the sauve charisma of Usher.
First, I check out any social media platforms he provides me with. Let’s head to Michael's LinkedIn profile.
He follows top voices that are storytellers, keynote speakers, and founders.
Has interests in content, writing, strategy, and marketing.
Lives in Nigeria currently.
Nearly 1,000 followers (so he has some presence online)
He received a bachelor’s degree in Biochem from a local University only last year
Freelance writer that helps individuals to monetize their brand through writing.
I have a good overview, understand areas where I may relate to, and ask questions about.
Dig a Bit Deeper
Offerings from his LinkedIn profile showcase proud moments, discussions, and thought-providing topics. I’ll jot the ideas that stand out to me should they turn into a discussion topic later.
Got a client 2k followers in two months
Teaches others how to repurpose “one piece of content into a hundred”
A recent post shows an info-graphic indentifying steps to create a quality carousel in 3 steps
An article he shared with me highlighted his story of not giving up
Social post about starting with a small goal
Don’t wait to have a large audience - start now
Developing writing strategies to overcome writer’s block
Created templates and offered this for free
Imposter syndrome set in
He posted and posted
Someone DM’d him and bought his templated system
Excitement of breaking that ice
Armed with a bit of knowledge about Michael and understanding his passions, I can start brainstorming questions to ask. At the beginning, you’ll probably jot down close to 30, 40, or maybe 50 questions to ask. Depending on the run time of your podcast episode, you’ll have to reduce your list to about five or ten very critical and impactful questions.
You’ll be surprised how quickly one question passes.
30 seconds to ask the question
2 minutes for an answer from your guest
15 seconds to follow up
If you’ve framed your follow up question properly, your guest will wrap up their follow up response in under one minute
Assuming your total time for one complete question and answer segment (including follow up) is three minutes. See what I mean? Ten questions will fill 30 minutes before you know it!
Expand Your Search
After performing a boolean search with his first and last name I stumbled upon a newsletter, hosted on Beehiv named The Writer’s Voice, Michael chats about
Success and failures
Tim Denning and Alex Brogan
The Writer’s Voice
I began clicking around and tweaking my search parameters. I then found:
Bio link directing me to a free “limitless writer’s guide”
Description that highlights making over $300 online with only 300 [Twitter] followers
Further insight now gained about his idealogies, inspirations, achievements, and perceived mentors.
Brainstorm Your Interview Questions
Now, if I was to have further conversation with Michael I could have a little back and forth in our DMs to explore a bit more. For now, I’ll leverage the starting points found thus far.
Based on what we know what questions should we talk about? Here are some ideas I would brainstorm (I’m refusing to torment you with having to read 50 ideas).
College Grad; Biochemistry
Twitter since 2018 - did he start writing then?
when did you first realize your love for writing?
Talk about frustration with writer’s block that led to the free templates and earning
Why do you think people feel that they can earn income online only with high follower counts?
What’s your favorite part about Nigeria? Do you have a lot of writing competition in your region?
Are there a lot of digital nomads there?
If you could go back to (when he earned his first dollar) what would you do differently?
Why do you look up to Tim Denning?
What does earning $1* represent to you?
*Mentioned setting small goals and talked about setting a $1 goal in a LinkedIn post
How did you come up with your 3 easy steps to carousel building? Explain/discuss
Be Curious
Do you find yourself to be curious, on the edge of your seat, ponder what the speakers will discuss next? What does the future, for Michael, hold?
If you did ask yourself any of those questions chance are your audience will be too.
Being curious and writing ideas down without judging yourself by keeping an open mind knowing that you can either cross it out, delete it, or cover it with ‘white out’ (should you be as archaeic as I am).
Practice Interview Research
All you really have to do is pick a topic, and search for someone online (search engine or a familiar social media platform and find someone in this industry. An expert, a leader, a customer — whatever angle you choose.
Once you have a topic consider creating a ficticious podcast title.
Write two to three sentences creating an excitement as if the guest is the very coolest, most awesome, and most important person in the world at the time of your podcast recording.
Then, what’s left to do is follow the process I’ve created for you.
Find a suitable profile
Dig a bit deeper
Expand your search
Brainstorm Your Interview Questions (write a huge list and reduce to about 5 to 10 questions total)
Be Curious
Repeat
Your Turn To Practice Interview Research
You’re welcome to try this activity on your own and let me know how you did! Encourage your friends to try this too.
Now that you’ve had some practice, what questions / ideas would you add to our podcast interview research?
Still feeling like you’re not quite there yet? Asking for help is totally fine. Feel free to book some time with me using the Your Podcast Sidekick scheduling tool.
That pitbull energy knows what he's doing though. Smart follow!!