One of the most important things you can do for your podcast is find great podcast guests. Interviewing great guests for your show will boost your authority due to your association with influential people in your niche.
There are many places to find great guests, but some people get overwhelmed with the process, stick with one method, or don’t know where to look.
If you host a weekly podcast, it’s not as difficult. You just need to get 52 YESes each year, and just a little more than that if you want to have episodes scheduled in advance.
When you release multiple episodes each week, you need to find more guests. Some day, Breakthrough Success will be a daily podcast. I’ll need to find at least 6 guests per week (I might do a solo appearance on the show once per week when it becomes daily).
Regardless of whether you are just getting started with your podcast or have been at it for a while, the guests on your show make the show. You can develop your skill as a great host, but even if you ask the best questions, the only way to get the best answers is to get the best guests on your show.
There are a few places you can go to find great guests for your next podcast episode. Here are 10 of them.
#1: Other Podcasts
By far the most popular way to find guests is to go on other podcasts in your niche. Not only are these guests good, but they also have experience with getting interviewed on podcasts.
I frequently go on EOFire to find potential guests for my show. Since John Lee Dumas publishes a new episode every day, there’s more potential guests to choose from.
However, you don’t want to become a me-too podcast. You don’t want to interview everyone who appeared on one podcast (in my example, EOFire). You want to incorporate a variety of platforms to find and reach out to guests AND ask different questions from other podcast hosts.
SUGGESTED ARTICLE: [3 STEPS TO HOSTING A GREAT PODCAST INTERVIEW]
#2: Virtual Summits
Virtual summits bring together the top experts in a niche. They get interviewed by the host and share their insights. Virtual summits are often touted as a powerful approach to growing a hyper-engaged audience, but they’re also great places to find potential podcast guests.
Search “[your niche] summit” and you’ll come up with several results. While most virtual summits have around 20 speakers, some virtual summits have over 50 speakers. The more virtual summits you come across, the more potential guests for your podcast.
#3: In-Person Events
This one takes more time but leads to healthy relationships. If you go to in-person events related to your niche, go up to the speakers and the action takers. Ask them if they would be interested in being guests on your show.
You can ask for the person’s email or write out your calendar link (if you have one…but if you don’t have one yet, I recommend Acuity). You may have to do some follow-up on your end (Spoiler Alert: you probably will), but if you kick it off during the in-person event, the interview will reflect that.
#4: LinkedIn
I am astonished at how many people view LinkedIn as nothing more than the “Online Résumé” Social Network. It is so much more than that.
You can find potential clients, people who can help you grow your business, and so many great people on that platform.
But in the context of this blog post, LinkedIn is also a great place to find guests for your show. LinkedIn’s search engine allows you to enter keywords and find people in the same way Google’s search engine helps you find articles, videos, and other content.
Do you want to find content marketers in New York who went to Fordham University? You can do that with LinkedIn and connect with each of those people.
SUGGESTED EPISODE: [LEVERAGE LINKEDIN TO GENERATE NON-STOP SALES, LEADS, AND REVENUE WITH JOHN NEMO]
The level of detail for any LinkedIn search is powerful and will help you find great guests for your show. To top it all off, the potential guest’s LinkedIn profile will usually give you everything you need for the prep.
A bio, past experience that can help you frame your questions, a profile picture, and, for some profiles, more details than you could possibly fit into a podcast episode.
#5: Amazon
The Everything Store continues on its path to global dominance. It has countless products, perks like Amazon Prime, and Alexa.
But Amazon is also a great place to find potential guests for your show.
They say that nothing builds your authority as quickly as publishing your own book. There are a few ways to take that…
The common way to take this insight is to get out there and write your book. There’s no problem with that. I aspire to write at least 1 book for every year I’m alive (I’m 20 and currently working on Book #20).
The other way you can take this advice is to think, “Well, if Amazon has so many books on its platform, it’s a great place to find authors in my niche.”
Simply search for Kindle books in your niche, and thousands of results will show up. That’s thousands of authors you can contact and invite onto your show.
One of the shortcuts I use for finding guests on Amazon is to scroll through the “Customer who bought this item also bought” and “Sponsored products related to this item” sections of the sales page to find more books and authors.
If you have your own book published on Amazon, I strongly encourage you to go on your book’s Amazon page and scroll through both of those sections to find guests. Not only will you find great guests, but you’ll also have a better idea of what type of content your readers buy and want more of.
Many of the people who bought Content Marketing Secrets have also bought books that show them how to sell more of their books and grow their audiences. What products do your customers frequently buy in addition to your own?
#6: Guest Blogs
Guest blogs take in experts to write content for them. It’s the blogging version of appearing on someone else’s podcast. Find prominent guest blogs in your niche and contact the people who wrote content that would be valuable for your listeners.
This works similarly to leveraging other podcasts, but I don’t recommend turning this into your main strategy for finding guests. Not all guest bloggers make great podcast guests, and some don’t have the proper audio to provide a great experience.
No matter how great the content is, bad audio will turn people away.
#7: Word-of-Mouth
This gets easier as you interview more guests and become more established. At the end of each interview, especially when you show is just beginning, ask the guest if they know anyone who would be a great fit for your show.
If you and the guest had a great interview, this tactic works like a charm. You will usually get anywhere from 1-3 recommendations. You can reach out to those people, get them on your show, and continue repeating the process while finding guests through other tactics.
#8: Books
We return to books, and you’ll hear more about them one more time before you finish reading this blog post.
We already know about finding books on Amazon and contacting those authors.
The next step is reading the best books in our niches. Within those pages, you’ll come across insights, stories, and more potential guests for your show.
It’s very common for authors to mention other people in their books. I’ve read some books and came away from those books with 5 potential guests for my show.
[SUGGESTED TRAINING: WRITE 1 KINDLE BOOK EVERY MONTH]
Scrolling through podcasts may be a more time effective approach for finding great guests, but if you’re reading books anyway (and that’s great for self-education, an essential for success), you might as well take note of interesting people mentioned in those books who would make great guests for your show.
#9: Product Testimonials
Maybe you don’t read books. I get that. Some people prefer to learn by listening to audiobooks, watching videos, or reading blog posts like this one.
But one thing anyone can do is go through the testimonials. The testimonials for any book are either on the back cover or fill up the first few pages of the book. With the right book, you can use the testimonials section to find 20-50 potential guests for your show. This is no exaggeration. Some books are loaded with 5-10 pages of testimonials before they get into the actual content.
You can take the same approach for training courses. If someone’s case study is highlighted on the sales page, reach out to that person to have him/her on your show. Interviewing the success stories also makes it easier to interview the person who created the training course.
Look for testimonials not just for what they say, but also for who’s giving them. Would they be a good fit for your show?
#10: YouTube
The digital surfer’s frequent hangout is also a place where potential guests hang out. Instead of searching for your version of cute kitten videos or turning away from the social network entirely to avoid searching for your version of cute kitten videos, you can search for keywords in your niche.
See which channels offer valuable content and connect with the people behind the channels. You can invite them to be guests on your show and learn a lot through the experience.
In Conclusion
The better the guests, the better the podcast. Unless you host a solo show, there’s no way around it. You need a variety of tactics to find the best guests for your show. In the end, you may not utilize all 10 of these tactics. I know I don’t.
I currently focus on other people’s podcasts, everything I said about books, and LinkedIn. I was more aggressive with word-of-mouth requests earlier in my journey and only use virtual summits to find speakers for my own virtual summits. Most of the virtual summit speakers have been on several podcasts anyway.
How do you find guests for your show? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.
ACTION STEP: Pick at least three of these tactics. Reach out to at least one guest using each of those 3+ tactics. That means you’re reaching out to three people for your show. Do this even if you don’t have a podcast but want to launch soon. The only reason Breakthrough Success is a thing is because I sent emails months before I was ready.
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