Podcast

How To Land Awesome Guests On Your Podcast

March 19, 2018 by Marc Guberti 9 Comments

I’ve been privileged to have some of the most remarkable people be guests on my podcast. I’ve interviewed game changers, leaders, and even some of my role models back from when I started.

Podcasting is becoming more important as the days roll by. You get to build relationships, learn, and provide your audience with valuable content. Podcasting may perhaps be the best way to grow a content brand today.

However, a big part of podcasting is landing awesome guest for your show. The value of your guests determines your show’s value and how much you learn by hosting each episode.

Regardless of whether you are just getting started or are deeper into it, this guide will help you land awesome guest for your show.

Get Clear On Who You’re Interviewing

The more clear you are on your topic, the more clear you’ll be on who you need to interview. Breakthrough Success is a blend of personal development and business growth tactics.

Narrowing down your topic allows you to get more clear on who you need to interview. However, it also helps you get clear on similar podcasts. One of my favorite ways of finding great guests is to look through the guests on other podcasts in my niche.

I’ll look through EOFire, Side Hustle Nation, and a few others to see who’s been interviewed on those podcasts. I will then contact some of those people and ask them to be on my show. I am building on this list of podcasts I can refer to for finding guests, and it’s important to build that list.

Once you get clear on who you need to interview, you determine podcasts that will fill up the list. Since I first implemented this approach, I now have five podcasts that I use to find great guests for my show.

Getting The Yes

Once you find a guest on someone else’s podcast, and you want to contact them, you need to contact them. This isn’t something that gets put on the to-do later list. Almost all tasks on that list never get accomplished.

Once I commit to finding guests, that’s the only thing I do. I don’t create a back burner list of guests that I have yet to contact.

As you send more pitches, you’ll be surprised to hear that most guests will say yes. Podcast guests want to get interviewed on as many podcasts as possible. They’ll make it work in their schedules.

While getting a yes for a podcast interview isn’t too difficult, you still need a great pitch. Emailed pitches are short and to the point. All of my emails live by the 5-Sentence Rule. None of my emails are more than five sentences.

It takes me much less time to write emails. But more importantly, it takes the potential guest less time to read the pitch and understand what you’re asking.

A shorter email gives you less time to tell your story and list your accomplishments. You need to squeeze the best ones into 1-2 normal-length sentences. These two sentences you read are at the normal length. I had something to say and added a period to end the sentence. I didn’t go on and on to turn several sentences into one sentence filled with my credentials thus making it more difficult for someone to understand what you’re saying.

See what I did there? That was intentional. Don’t do that with your accomplishments. Just mention 3-5 big ones. I tell people I’m an entrepreneur, author, and blogger with 500K social media followers. I also mention that I published 19 books and created 25 training courses before my 20th birthday.

I can mention more, but I don’t. Those two sentences paint a good enough picture which attracts potential guests to my podcast. If you spend too much time persuading, you won’t give your potential guests enough time or desire to take action.

If you’ve had guests on your show or confirmed upcoming guests, mention them. I tell all potential guests about some of the past guests on the show. This gives me authority by association.

Not only will potential guests recognize that authority by association, but they’ll also want that authority by association for themselves. Think about what it says about you if you got interviewed on EOFire. You could say the following:

I got interviewed by John Lee Dumas

I got interviewed on the same podcast that featured guests like Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, and many more.

This is why so many of us want to get featured on a prominent publication (think New York Times). We recognize their authority by association and want a piece of that.

If you convey yourself and that authority by association, more people will agree to be on your show. If you don’t have any superstar guests yet, mention the top people who have been on your show.

If you don’t have any guests period, mention that your podcast is new. You’ll get some people on board. During the post conversation, ask your guests if they could refer another guest to the show and repeat that pattern for future guests.

As you get more guests, you can leverage your association with them to get more yeses from future pitches.

Ask Awesome Guests Who They Know

Awesome is contagious. Awesome podcast guests know other awesome podcast guests. If you really enjoyed an interview with someone, ask that person for multiple recommendations.

At the end of an interview I enjoyed very much, the guest recommended another guest. That recommendation was awesome!

Then that guest made several recommendations and that has led to even more awesome.

Awesome people know awesome people who you don’t know. They hold the keys to the kingdom, and all you have to do is ask. It’s easy to ask, but it’s also easy to not ask. Make the choice to ask guests if they know someone good for your show, and you’ll have a stream of awesome guests coming in.

In Conclusion

Podcasting is one of the best opportunities for learning and growing your brand. I honestly can’t say enough good things about it.

However, the value of your podcasting experience and your listeners’ experiences depends on the guests you attract to the show. Attract the best guests, and you’ll have the best podcast in your niche.

What were your thoughts on these tactics? Do you have any suggestions for attracting awesome guests to a podcast? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

Hack Your Mindset To Publish One Podcast Episode Every Day

March 14, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Podcasting is one of the best ways to grow your business. You get to create new content, connect with influencers, and learn from them.

I learn more from my interviews than from the books I read. That’s because I get to ask very specific questions which results in very specific answers.

If I want to improve in an area in my niche, I can interview someone good in the area and ask them my questions. My podcast is set up so that most of my questions are also my listeners’ questions.

Making the shift from a weekly podcast to a weekday podcast allowed me to interview five times as many people. This allowed me to meet many new people and expand my knowledge.

But one thing I noticed is that I spend significantly more time working on the podcast each week. While I am very grateful for my podcast’s success, five times the guests means five times the work.

When I eventually turn Breakthrough Success into a daily podcast, that will mean even more work. If you have a weekly podcast or don’t have a podcast at all, this is how you can hack your mindset to publish one new episode every day.

The Shift To Weekday Shows

Once I got comfortable with interviewing people on Breakthrough Success, I knew that I wanted to interview more people. Before I turned Breakthrough Success into a weekly podcast, I hosted two virtual summits.

At the peak of those summits (I couldn’t resist), I interviewed dozens of people within a week. Since I interviewed so many people during the virtual summits, it was easier for me to turn Breakthrough Success into a weekday podcast.

I know you may not have had the luxury of hosting two virtual summits. However, you can easily make the shift. It’s not as hard as it seems.

All you need to do is interview at least five people each week. If your interviews are 30 minutes each, that’s just 2.5 hours every week. It’s not that much to ask for since there are 168 hours in a week.

My interviews are closer to 45 minutes which means I just need 3 hours and 45 minutes each week. I batch 80-90% of the interviews on Wednesdays and schedule one interview on Monday and another on Thursday to have more insurance content.

It’s important to build up your insurance content because if you take a two week vacation and can’t create new episodes, you’ll rely on the built-up insurance content to continue providing your listeners with new episodes while you’re on vacation.

With that said, you’ll need to do five times the work to make this happen. My approach is to write introductions first so I know how to gear my questions. I tend to think of questions during my free time and type them on my smartphone.

I no longer think of questions while on my computer. I think of the questions during commutes and while walking. I will then type the same questions from my smartphone onto my computer.

Accounting For Expenses

You may be wondering why I don’t just go from a weekday podcast to a daily podcast if I want to do it so much. The answer to that question is expenses.

I hire a show notes writer and an audio editor to create a smooth experience for my listeners. Before I consider turning Breakthrough Success into a daily podcast, I need to boost my revenue—especially revenue that I generate from my podcast.

When you 5X your episode frequency, you 5X your expenses. I can easily support a weekly show but a weekday show is more difficult. While I can still keep Breakthrough Success running, I need help. That’s why I created a Patreon Page to take contributions for the show.

If you are interested, you can become a patron here and help support Breakthrough Success. I am very grateful for all of my patrons and offer several bonuses and exclusive content just for you being a patron.

Monetize Your Show

There are several ways to monetize your show. One of the ways I monetize my show is with Patreon. While I monetize in other ways as well, I use Patreon because I see it as direct podcast revenue.

It’s not indirect revenue like if you promote one of your products in the intro and/or outro of each episode. I will use the intros and more often the outros to promote some of my products, but I don’t use ads.

I believe ads interrupt the experience, and I’d rather promote my own products than use someone else’s ads. That’s my preference.

If you want to make your podcast a weekday podcast, you need to monetize it. If you don’t, podcasting can become a very expensive hobby. It’s a hobby even if you’re building healthy relationships with influencers in your niche.

If you will spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars each month on your podcast, you need to make revenue from it too.

Of course, you can choose to edit your episodes and write the show notes yourself. I prefer not to perform those tasks because I can pursue more revenue generating activities like creating classes on SkillShare, growing my email list, and leveraging affiliate marketing.

In Conclusion

It’s possible and extremely beneficial for anyone to host a daily podcast. You get to interview at least 365 people every year. Think of how much you’ll learn from doing that.

In my case, I’d be asking specific questions and receiving specific answers for 11.4 days each year (273.75 hours). You make a living through a formal education. You make a fortune through self-education. If you do it right, podcasting is the best method of self-education you’ll ever utilize.

What are your thoughts on hosting a daily podcast? Do you have any advice for us so we can reach that level? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Publish Your First Podcast Episode

January 2, 2018 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

publish first podcast episode

Podcasting presents a unique opportunity to connect with influencers, expand your brand, and publish new content for your audience at the same time. You get to interview guests who then promote the episode, and that episode is content for your audience. But for a beginner, publishing the first podcast episode seems difficult.

For starters, you need to get a guest to say yes (unless you want to run a talk show style podcast). Even then, you need to figure out the technological end of the process so everything smoothly sails.

People like John Lee Dumas and Pat Flynn literally make six figures from their podcasts every month. I can go on and on about the benefits of starting your own podcast, but I’ll go deep into how you can publish your first podcast episode.

Get The Yes Before Doing Anything Else

Before you do any additional research for starting a podcast, you need to land your first guest. Before I knew anything that I’ll share with you, I contacted five people and asked them to be a guest on my upcoming podcast.

The moment I got the first yes, I was committed.

Since getting the first yes, I’ve used a bunch of tactics to land more guests on my podcast. I started with my network and expanded from there.

Email them with a message like this:

Hello [name],

I’m starting a new podcast about [topic] called [name of podcast]. If you are interested, I would love to have you as a guest on the show.

[Closing]

Make your email short to avoid overwhelming the potential guest (who may be getting several emails like this, and plenty of emails not like this).

You can schedule your first guest the old-fashioned way (a bunch of back and forth emails in which you and the guest confirm a time and date that works for both of you). In the long-term, it’s better to use a tool like Acuity to make the scheduling process seamless.

One lesson I learned from this experience is that it’s harder to start than it is to continue. Once you get started, the rest of it gets much easier.

Determine How You’ll Conduct The Interview

I use a combination of Skype and Zoom to conduct my interviews. The Skype Call Recorder is less expensive and gets the job done. However, Skype can sometimes have problems such as breaking up the connection, but overall Skype’s Call Recorder is very reliable.

When there are problems, I use Zoom. I started using Zoom because it was essential for my Content Marketing Success Summit and Productivity Virtual Summit. While Skype Call Recorder is fine with audio, most of the problems emerge when you go to the video format. Zoom is my go-to tool when I want to conduct the interview as a video.

Don’t look beyond Skype and Zoom. Pick one or the other, test it to make sure you know what you’re doing, and then move onto the next step. Here are some of the differences between Skype and Zoom for you to explore when making your decision.

Prepare For The Interview

podcast preparation

Deciding between Skype and Zoom will eventually determine the platform you use to conduct your first podcast episode and beyond. Preparing for the interview is the next step, and while this may seem difficult for the first episode, the prep work gets much easier as you prepare for more interviews.

Before we talk about how the prep work gets easier, let’s talk about preparing for the first interview.

To effectively prepare for a podcast interview, you need the following:

#1: Show Introduction—This is the same for each show (or at least for a while). Greet your listeners, say your name, and state who the podcast is for. Here’s the show intro I use for my podcast: Hello and welcome. I am your host, Marc Guberti, and this is the podcast for entrepreneurs who are looking for the breakthrough for their businesses. I am very excited about this show.

#2: Topic Introduction—Intro the topic in a few sentences. Let listeners know why this is important and how this episode will impact them.

#3: Guest Introduction—I usually look at a guest’s About Me Page or read their About Section in another podcast’s show notes. This makes the guest introduction easier for me to write. Don’t mention the guest’s name until the very end of your intro. Use “Today’s guest” for the rest of it.

#4: Write The Questions In Advance—Think of some questions that you would like to ask the guest. I used to write 12 questions as if I am a client and the guest is a consultant. As you write more questions, you’ll find a few that you can ask over and over again. Now you have to think of fewer questions since you have some predetermined questions. That’s how the prep work gets easier over time. It gets even easier if you listen to the guest. I now only write half as many questions as I need because the other half of the questions come from our conversation.

The Interview Itself

After you prepare for the interview, the next step is the interview itself. The more time you prepare for the interview, the better the interview will flow.

Establishing an enthusiastic flow throughout the interview is critical for two reasons:

This flow determines the value of the interview. That value determines how many loyal listeners your podcast gets.

The interview is expedited relationship building. In most cases, a great interview instantly creates a great relationship.

Practice reading the intro just before the guest calls in (the intro will make or break any episode). Say it with enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm will carry through the episode.

As you ask questions, you need to listen to the answer while thinking of how you will connect their answer with your next question.

You want the questions to flow as if you thought of them in the moment. Once you think of a good transition, hold that transition in your mind as you listen.

Once you have the transition in mind, you must still listen to the answer because you’ll learn new things, and some guests ask their hosts questions. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.

Writing The Show Notes

writing podcast show notes

Another reason you need to listen to responses is because you’ll have to write show notes for each interview. In the show notes, you simply summarize what listeners will learn without giving too much information (you want listeners to listen to your episode instead of getting everything from the show notes).

I advise relying on your memory for the show notes and using the questions to spark your memory. When I look back at the questions, I bring myself back to my conversation with the guest. This helps me craft better show notes.

You can eventually outsource this part of the process (and almost every other process), but you should put in the work to write show notes before you hire someone. You’ll need to teach that person how to get the job done, and you can only do that with some experience under your belt.

You should also write the show notes for at least the first dozen episodes to reaffirm your commitment to your podcast.

Publishing Episodes With Libsyn

You now have the interview file and the show notes all set. Some people edit their interview files to include intros and outros and to fix any mistakes. I hired an audio editor from Day #1 because I knew that would hinder me from starting.

You may love editing the audio of your episodes, but if you don’t, either hire someone or make the edits very minimal. Your first episode is a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and a proof of the concept. If you reach 100 episodes, the editing and entire process should be more detailed.

But to not drift too far, you have your audio file and your show notes. The final step is to publish your first episode. While many options exist, Libsyn is the best choice. I use their service to publish Breakthrough Success episodes on my blog, Stitcher, iTunes, Android, and plenty of other places.

Don’t just take my word for it. Pat Flynn and John Lee Dumas BOTH use Libsyn for their podcasts. Libsyn is very reliable, and while there are other options available, I recommend sticking with Libsyn.

In Conclusion

If you want to publish your first podcast episode, I strongly recommend you follow this blog post’s steps from start to finish. I have written over 2,000 blog posts, and I have never been that direct in asking people to follow any of my blog posts to the brim.

There are so many ways to approach each of these phases within the process. You’ll develop your process as you publish more episodes. I’ve interviewed hundreds of people for my podcast and virtual summits. This process works.

Yes, there are other ways, but why not go for something that works. Other approaches will work too, but none are as action oriented and specific as this approach.

If you think a modification is needed, let me know. But if I had to start the Breakthrough Success Podcast and relearn how to podcast over and over again, this is the only blog post I would need for getting started.

What are your thoughts on this approach? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Ways To Land More Guests On Your Podcast

April 22, 2017 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Hello everyone, I’m teenager entrepreneur Marc Guberti. In this post I’m going to share with you five different methods you can use to get more guests on your podcast.

But before I get into that, I want to talk to those of you who haven’t yet started a podcast, but are thinking about it, and tell you why podcasts are so valuable.

One of my favorite things about podcasting is that I get free mentors.

Rather than pay for an expensive consultation session, you can interview someone, ask questions that are also your audience’s questions, and get the answers as well as more insight about your niche. So I find that really valuable.

You also get to build relationships with, as you scale your podcast, some of the most influential and successful people on the planet.

That is no understatement at all. Basically with a podcast, and you being able to interview all of these people, you are going to reach more people with your podcast. If you really scale this up, you could even have a chat with one of your role models.

Some people are able to land that interview on their very first episode. I would not recommend doing that because you’re going to feel a lot of pressure interviewing your role model. While that’s also just the nature of the game, I recommend conducting some interviews before you ask your role model if he or she is available for a podcast interview.

Finally, exponential authority.

I mean, I don’t know if you’ve seen other people with podcasts do this, but they’ll say stuff like, “I’ve had guests like so-and-so and this person and that person.” That gives you more authority by association. So if you associate yourself with authority figures in your podcast, you’ll increase your own authority as well.

So now that you know why podcasts are awesome, I’m going to talk to you about methods, beginning with the ‘contact me’ page.

This page works both ways: your ‘contact me’ page and your guest’s ‘contact me’ page. In the beginning, your contact me page is going to do little to nothing unless you already have a big audience.

So what you want to do on your guest’s ‘contact me’ page is tell them about your podcast and your past guests, if you have any; if you don’t, focus more on what your podcast is about. You should be doing this either way, but you should have a stronger focus on what your podcast is about if you still haven’t had any guests.

You want to make this a really short email, less than five sentences, because some of these people are very busy and they only have a few seconds to decide if this is the right opportunity for them. The ‘contact me’ page seems to be a universal page on most blogs. You can usually find it easily at the top of the blog. If you cannot find it, go into the search engine on that person’s blog and search for the words ‘contact me’ or ‘contact us’. You can also go to the very bottom of a blog to look for the contact me option.

As you continue to get more guests and you continue to build your authority, some people are going to contact you directly and ask if they can be on your show. Some of your fans may also suggest people who could be on your show. So in the beginning, you’re doing a lot of work by contacting people, but eventually people are going to be contacting you asking to be on your show, or giving you ideas of who could appear on your next episode.

The second way to get more guests from your podcast is to use Twitter.

I absolutely love using Twitter for the purpose of getting more guests on my podcast episodes. I find people in my niche who I want to engage with and then ask them via Twitter if they would like to appear on my podcast. The great thing about Twitter is that it’s just 140 characters; sometimes I’ll find myself sending two tweets to the same person to get my point across, but that’s still less than 280 characters, and people usually engage with their followers on Twitter.

Responsive users are looking to see who has mentioned them, so they will see your tweet request. And a lot of them will engage with that tweet. I mean, some people might say, “Unfortunately I can’t do it.” But other people will say, “Great. Where do we start?” Another thing I do is include my email address within these tweets.

Why? Because you can’t easily continue a conversation like this on Twitter. Once you have the person’s attention, you’ll now want it to go beyond 140 characters. You’ll want to send them your scheduling link, which you definitely want to keep private or else you’re going to get a lot of people that you don’t want to interview filling up your calendar.

Even if you don’t have a scheduling calendar, you don’t want to be talking about, “Oh, let’s do it at this time, this date,” on Twitter. That’s why I provide my email address within the tweets that I send to these people. As a bonus, if you are a verified user, you can filter and see all of the verified users who are following you. If you have a lot of verified users following you, you can go through them and see which ones you really want to have on your podcast, and then contact them.

The reason I like this method is because in order to be verified you’ve likely done something really cool. Maybe you have an incredible story, or expertise. These are the types of people you want as guests on your podcast. So that’s how you use Twitter in order to get more people on your podcast. It doesn’t matter if you have hundreds of thousands of followers or just a few hundred followers, you can use this method to get more people on your podcast.

The third way to get more guests on your podcast is through referral.

After you interview someone, ask that person if he or she can recommend anyone who would be a great guest for your podcast. This allows you to leverage your guests to build relationships that you couldn’t have built on your own. Some people are inaccessible to you but not the person you interviewed; that person can make the introduction.

This is an underrated method. It may not be the method that will get you the majority of your guests, but you can get a few really cool guests by asking every one of your guests, “Who would you like to see on my podcast? Who can you introduce me to?” The main rule I follow is to build as many relationships as possible. I like to follow the approach in which you build one meaningful relationship every single day.

So I build a lot of relationships without expecting anything in return. But sure enough, I get many things in return. I mean, I don’t go into the relationship with expectations. But I often engage with a new contact only to find that same person lending a hand a few months down the line, perhaps by saying, “I know this person who would be great for your podcast,” or, “I know someone who is looking for people to interview for his podcast.” So you never know what opportunities will open up when you start to build relationships; try to build one meaningful relationship a day and expect nothing in return.

The fourth way to get more guests for your podcast is to read books about your niche.

When you read books about your niche, it helps you build knowledge about your niche. That’s one of the most common reasons people say, “Read books.” But there are more benefits to reading books, especially when it comes to having your own podcast. What I’ve noticed is a lot of authors like to mention other authors and other people’s works within their own books. It’s a pattern I see a lot.

So with this pattern in mind, you can come across more people who would make for great guests on your episodes. Even if you can’t get the main author, you can go through that author’s book, see which books and authors he or she recommends, and then contact those individuals to see if they would like to be on your podcast. Plus, reading a book written by a guest on your podcast will greatly strengthen the interview.

What I like to do when I’m interviewing someone (and have read their book in advance) is underline key points found within their book. By doing that, I am able to bring up key points when I first contact them about being a guest, as well as formulate better questions once they agree to be a guest on my podcast. I don’t have to reread the book, I just focus on the important points I’ve already underlined.

If you get really good at reading books you could get through 10 books a month, and read as many books as possible from authors who have books on pre-order. You can say, “I have this podcast, I’d love to interview you about your upcoming book.” Some of them will send you a copy or a few chapters to help you formulate questions to make the interview better.

Authors with books on pre-order are the easiest people to get on your podcast because they are looking for more exposure at this specific moment of time. What these authors try to do is get a bunch of podcast interviews, or a bunch of guest posting opportunities all within less than four weeks from the time the book actually launches.

Getting high authority authors when they are in this pre-order stage will allow you to get more people later on because, as mentioned before, authority by association means you will be associated with some of these really successful authors (who you had contacted back when their books were on pre-order).

The final way to get more guests on your podcast, is to contact more people.

I mean, it sounds really simple. Contact more people, get more of them to say yes. But you need to contact more people in order to multiply your results. If you want to get more people on your podcast as guests, then instead of contacting five people, contact 10 people. By contacting twice as many people, in theory, you get twice as many guests for your podcast.

I like to make this a daily habit. I’ll contact at least three people a day for either a podcast appearance or a summit experience. This daily habit keeps me in check and makes it easier for me to contact different people and get interviews with them. So, with this habit, I contact over 1000 people in any given year. And if I get 33% of those people to say yes, I’ll have enough podcast material for an entire year. And if I do a weekly, rather than daily, podcast, I’ll have nearly 300 extra interviews that can be organized into summits.

I personally recommend not having too long of a queue. Let’s say you get 20 interviews for your podcast and you do an episode every week; that is unfair to guest number 20. So at that point you would increase the frequency in which you publish new episodes. It will challenge you to reach out to more people. It will challenge you to learn more about your niche. And it is such a fun experience!

In my experience, though, scheduling can get really annoying – things like suggesting different times and dates. I stopped doing that and started using Acuity. Acuity lets you set up a calendar and people can simply choose which times and dates work for them, which also work for you.

This makes it easier for you to contact more people because you don’t have to go back and forth with scheduling technicalities. Instead of going through all that hassle, you can just send them a link to your Acuity calendar, and that makes it easier for you and easier for the guest to schedule an interview.

Do you have any tips for landing podcast interviews? Will you try any of the tips mentioned in this post? Reach out in the comment section below.

If you’re new to this blog, please subscribe with the form below to receive more content like this. And don’t forget to pass on this post if you know someone who may benefit from it.

Until next time,

-Marc

*image credit: Pixabay

23 Lessons I Learned From My Podcast In 2016

December 9, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

I have published 21 podcast episodes in which I have interviewed a variety of people. During the entire process (connecting with people, preparation, and the interviews themselves), I learned many new things.

As a part of my end of the year reflection series, I decided to come up with a list of 23 lessons I learned from my podcasting adventure.

I already knew some of these lessons but thought they were important to share. In addition, I needed to remind myself of some of these lessons, especially #17.

#1: Start Before You Are Ready

I had many false starts before I finally launched my podcast. It was two years in the making. What made it happen? I started contacting people about the podcast before I could even think of what I was doing. I then had to think really fast when I got the first yes.

#2: Conduct Your First Interview With A Fellow Podcaster

The first person I interviewed for my podcast was none other than Jeffrey Shaw. Big shout out to you my friend. He gave me some tips after the interview and steered me on the right path.

#3: Don’t Be Afraid To Ask

I contacted some people knowing that they would almost certainly agree to be guests on my podcast. I contacted other people in hopes they would say yes. Some of those people said yes while others said no. I wasn’t afraid to ask people like Seth Godin, Neil Patel, Mike Michalowicz, and many other people.

#4: There Are No Limits.

One of the things I despise the most is when people say they don’t have the right credentials to pursue a goal. If you think of an 18-year-old without a license, do you think about me? I am that 18-year-old, but that hasn’t stopped me from interviewing millionaires, bestselling authors, TEDx speakers, and other successful people. I don’t say this to brag but rather to show you the possibilities.

#5: Be Over Prepared

Each guest is different. Some of them will elaborate with their answers while others will give you quick answers that make you run through all of your questions quickly. If you don’t have enough questions, you’ll have to improvise on the fly. After enough interviews, I decided to come up with at least 20 questions for every guest. I don’t get to all 20 questions, but I do get to the important questions. Everything else is icing on the cake.

#6: Outsource Most Of The Work

I have never edited a single episode and yet they get published as if they were edited. These episodes are edited, but they get edited by one of my freelancers. Without this individual, the podcast would not be possible. I don’t have enough time to devote to editing the audio, so I hired someone else to do it instead.

#7: Go

I continuously hunt for motivational quotes I can share with my audience. I asked Seth for his most inspirational quote and he just said, “Start.” As the conversation unfolded, Seth gave us another motivational quote, “Go.” The simplest approaches are often the most effective. If “Go” doesn’t get you fired up, I don’t know what will.

#8: Everyone Wants Another Breakthrough

I have interviewed several people with six, seven, and even eight figure brands. I have interviewed guests who have achieved everything that many of their listeners want to accomplish. These same guests aspire to hit the next breakthrough. They aren’t settling with where they are now. They continue to push the envelop, and that’s why these guests have achieved great admiration for what they do.

#9: Don’t Give Up If The Launch Is A Bust

While I got hundreds of listeners for my podcast, it did not end up in the iTunes New & Noteworthy section. At this point, some people give up because their intention is to get into that New & Noteworthy section. But to be a successful podcaster, blogger, YouTuber, or anything else of that nature, you must continue producing content, video, or audio for many years to come. Keep those launch ambitions alive, but remember there’s far more to a podcast than those first weeks after the launch.

#10: Have A Structure

All of my podcast episodes follow a structure. The intro, interview, and outro reside within the structure of each episode. I also have an email rubric that I use to contact potential guests. The more structure you have in your life, the more efficient and effective you will become.

I learned the first 10 lessons by pushing through and launching the podcast. The rest of the lessons mentioned here come directly from prior episodes.

#11: Have a team around you that shares the same vision.

#12: Set bigger goals to get bigger results.

#13: The habits you develop will make or break you.

#14: It’s possible to chase your startup dream without quitting your job. To do that, you’ll have to be a 10% Entrepreneur.

#15: Outlining your goal enables you to take action at a quicker rate.

#16: Writing a book increases your authority within that subject.

#17: Perseverance is vital regardless of what ambition you pursue.

#18: Speaking to a targeted audience may mean reinventing your methods of delivery. If you are a KeyNote presenter, you’ll have to go without the slides if you wish to speak at a TEDx.

#19: The email list is the most important platform you have for your business. If you don’t have an email list, create one now.

#20: Fear can be a motivator that results in you accomplishing your goals. From personal experience, fear of the deadline works very well.

#21: Don’t say yes to any client who comes your way. Only say yes to the clients you want to work with.

#22: Several guests on the show grow their businesses exponentially with the help of referrals. For some, it meant raffling free prizes to people who got you more email addresses. For others, it meant cross promotion.

#23: Recruiting affiliates for your products will allow your products to spread farther than you could have spread them on your own.

Which lesson was your favorite? Who would you like for me to interview? Have any lessons for us as we head towards 2017? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Reasons to Start a Podcast NOW!

August 26, 2016 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

why start a podcast

The inner thought grew louder and louder: CREATE A PODCAST!

That’s what the inner thought kept saying. So I thought about it, looked at the work it entailed, determined it would be impossible, and gave up. Instead, I continued writing blog posts, publishing books, and coming out with new Udemy courses.

But the inner thought was not satisfied.

CREATE A PODCAST!

No matter how much work I piled on myself, that inner thought still rang loudly. And even after two failed attempts at creating a podcast, it had finally won. I wasn’t giving up.

On the path to starting my own podcast, I contacted five people about being a guest. And as soon as I received the first positive response, I found the determination to follow through. Now I want to interview as many people as I can!

Talk about a complete mind shift.

I’ve finally tapped into the power of podcasting — perhaps the most underrated stream of traffic and revenue on the web — and I think that, deep down, everyone wants to start his or her own podcast. So let me assure you that the workload is quite simple once you get the hang of it.

If you are still on the fence, then this blog post is designed to get you off that fence and into the world of podcasting.

Right now I’m acting as a salesman for podcasting because I know it’s so valuable. But I do not currently offer a podcasting product, so don’t expect an up-sell.

Here’s why it’s so beneficial to start your own podcast:

#1: Tap Into A Completely New Audience

If you write blog posts, create training courses, write Kindle books, offer consultation sessions or any of your own services, there are two BIG audiences you will NEVER reach: the iTunes Podcasts audience and the Stitcher audience.

Stitcher has an Alexa rank that hovers between 14,000 and 16,000. iTunes has millions of users (and it’s owned by Apple so it’s incredibly popular).

You can’t get access to that audience with any other form of content but the podcast. And from within your podcast intros and outros, you can lead this new audience to your blog, landing pages, and products.

#2: Learn From The Best

I chose to start a podcast in which I interview guests who can provide valuable insights. My knowledge is limited, and so is yours. There are many people who know many things that neither you nor I know right now.

But the beauty is the knowledge of any person can be expanded and tapped.

I expand my knowledge of my niche by interviewing people on my podcast. Right now, I have interviewed dozens of people. Not all of the interviews are published yet, but that’s how many people I have interviewed.

I got a lot of inspiration from Nick Loper’s Side Hustle Nation podcast which I have been mentioning here a lot lately. As I listen to more of his episodes, I pay more attention to the guests. Then I contacted some of them and asked them to be guests on my own podcast. Some of those people said yes.

And when I read through Nick’s blog posts, I realize just how much he learns from those guests.

The knowledge he learned from one of his interviewees allowed him to go from virtually no Pinterest traffic in two months to more than 10,000 visitors from Pinterest in the following two months.

podcast example

Want to become one of the best? Then surround yourself with the best. Starting your own podcast and interviewing interesting people is a great way to make that happen.

#3: Influencers Will Promote Your Episodes

Many of the guests featured on your show will promote that show to their own audiences. You’ll get more traffic from your guests’ efforts, and some of that traffic will funnel back to your guests’ sites as well.

Some of the people your guests bring over will become devoted subscribers to your podcast. That means each new episode will accumulate more downloads than the last.

All of these downloads will help your podcast rank higher on the iTunes Podcasts and Stitcher search results.

#4: Repurpose Your Podcast Episodes

You can repurpose a podcast episode into several types of content.

You can turn each of your podcast episodes into a video. If you host a Skype conversation with someone, you can take that Skype call and turn it into a YouTube video. If you only use MP3, you can include your podcast’s logo as the image part of the video and then simply insert the audio.

Plus, you can turn every podcast into a blog post. Take a look at how they do it on Social Media Examiner.

The show notes turn the podcast episode into a blog post optimized for search engines.

These types of blog posts command significantly higher visit times than most blog posts because people who like the podcast episode may be on the same blog post for 30-60 minutes, depending on the length of the episode.

The higher your visit time, the better your blog will rank on the search engines.

You can also publish that blog post elsewhere. LinkedIn Pulse and Medium are two places anyone can put their blog posts regardless of credibility or social proof.

I also get some of my blog posts featured on Business2Community (but getting featured there isn’t as easy as creating your own on Medium and/or LinkedIn).

#5: It’s Fun!

Finding and contacting guests forces me out of my comfort zone and allows me to learn new things. And building a conversation with the guest allows a relationship to develop. I like those too.

Each time I schedule a podcast into my calendar, I feel like a champ. With my different time-consuming commitments, it’s awesome to know that I can still block an hour for an episode.

I love the interviews. I learn, get to know influencers better, and have fun, interesting conversations. Depending on who you invite to your podcast, you can get that epic combination of insight and humor.

If you have a business related podcast and want a guest who can provide awesome insights while making you laugh every other minute, Mike Michalowicz is the go-to guy.

In Conclusion

For a long time, I didn’t start a podcast. Now I can’t stop talking about it.

Podcasting has allowed me to connect and chat with some of the brightest people within my niche. Through each of these interviews, I have learned more about how I can expand my business and what it takes to achieve success.

What are your thoughts about starting a podcast? Have any stories for us? Sound off in the comments section below.

My podcast Breakthrough Success comes out on August 31st. In that podcast, I’ll delve into the backstories of successful entrepreneurs and explore how they achieved their success.