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Transcript

Breaking the Ice: Tips for Making Your Podcast Guests Comfortable · Your Mic

• 0:00
  Welcome back to Your Mic.
• 0:01
  My name is Freddy Cruz, founder of Speak Podcasting, and today
• 0:05
  I'm joined once again by my friend Rena Friedman-Watts, host of the podcast Better Call
• 0:10
  Daddy.
• 0:11
  Today's subject is crafting a killer interview.
• 0:14
  That's because Rena is a master
• 0:17
  storyteller when it comes to getting the best out of every single guest on her show.
• 0:22
  During this episode, you're going to get pro tips on researching for unique podcast questions.
• 0:27
  You're going to uncover icebreaker moves for podcasts and real-life interviews.
• 0:32
  And you're going to find out how to wrap with impact and a distinct call to action.
• 0:38
  And by the way, you are not going to want to miss
• 0:41
  Rina's Crafting a Killer Interview workshop at SpeakFest 2025.
• 0:46
  To get your tickets, go to speakpodcasting.com slash speakfest 2025.
• 0:53
  How do you craft a killer interview?
• 0:55
  Well, it starts with stalking the victim.
• 0:58
  Oh, good Lord.
• 0:58
  I'm going to leave the studio right now.
• 1:01
  It's true.
• 1:02
  Elaborate.
• 1:03
  Yes.
• 1:04
  So you need to know who you are interviewing first.
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  That's what she means, everybody.
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  You don't literally stalk, but you need to research.
• 1:14
  You got to know something.
• 1:16
  Researching slash stalking in a good way.
• 1:19
  Yeah.
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  And what I mean by that is if they have social media, you need to know what they're posting about.
• 1:26
  And also, what are people posting about them?
• 1:31
  So one of the first things that I do is look at someone's LinkedIn and I see who has recently recommended them.
• 1:39
  And then I try to connect with those people.
• 1:42
  And then I say to them, could I, you know, connect with you?
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  I'm getting ready to interview the person that you just recommended.
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  And I drop their name.
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  And then I say, is there anything, like if you were interviewing them, that you would want to ask them?
• 1:57
  That's pretty hardcore.
• 1:58
  You're going into the comments and connecting with people who commented on the people that you're going to interview.
• 2:05
  I never would have thought to do that.
• 2:06
  Yes.
• 2:07
  Wow.
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  I've done that many times, especially when I don't know the person well.
• 2:12
  So if I want a unique question, I want to know who knows them well.
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  because somebody who usually gives a recommendation to someone has had an experience with them.
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  And when you've had an experience with someone and you actually know them in real life,
• 2:27
  like if you've worked a job with them or you've done a podcast episode with them,
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  people that you're writing a recommendation for, you probably know a little bit deeper.
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  So you want to connect with the person that knows them deeper
• 2:40
  because then you might get a good curveball question.
• 2:44
  Is that how you were able to...
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  Okay, let's back up because LinkedIn wasn't really a thing when you were producing for Springer and 99.1.
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  I feel this was embedded in your psyche.
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  This is a new tactic.
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  This is in your DNA.
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  So how did you do what you're talking about back then before we had social media?
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  Well, I don't have a problem talking to people.
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  You obviously don't.
• 3:12
  we'll get to that i have specific examples from our trip to dallas yeah so it was more run and
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  gun then it was like springer was like oh just go to a strip club and jello wrestling night and
• 3:26
  see if any girl has two guys fighting over them jello strip club wow i mean know your audience
• 3:35
  yeah i mean that is the was the audience right yeah oh my goodness okay so well might have found
• 3:42
  guests that way nanny 9-1-1 honestly you could still in the same way this that was kind of at
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  the start of social media so it would have been more like kind of like facebook now like if you're
• 3:55
  wanting to cover a topic you can literally just pull your audience like hey do you know anybody
• 4:02
  that has their hands full with twins or triplets or four kids under 17 like myself?
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  And would they be open to being on television and telling their story and getting advice
• 4:16
  from someone who might be able to get them on a better schedule?
• 4:21
  Okay, so this is this kind of we're going to get back to crafting a killer interview.
• 4:25
  But because you talk about having four kids under the age of 17, I have to know what do
• 4:28
  they think about mom being a podcaster?
• 4:31
  one, but two, have you explained to them what Jerry Springer is?
• 4:36
  Yeah, that's a great question.
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  I don't think they fully understand that.
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  And that is partially why
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  I chose not to be in the documentary.
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  There are parts of that show that happened before we all
• 4:52
  had phones and we're recording everything permanently and forevermore.
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  oh gosh aren't you glad that we grew up i mean not like i would have not like i did anything
• 5:04
  illegal i'm just saying with the way that all it takes is somebody to see oh well wow i can't
• 5:11
  believe reena used to do this well guess what i'm not going to offer her that job it is a little
• 5:16
  scary considering some of my old episodes have surfaced on youtube and if you know what to search
• 5:21
  you can find them.
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  Oh, I'm falling into my rabbit hole.
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  No, just kidding.
• 5:27
  Okay, so back to crafting
• 5:28
  a killer interview.
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  What do you think is getting overused when it comes to new podcasters or even
• 5:35
  people that are like 100 episodes in?
• 5:37
  Yeah, great question.
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  So I think one way to keep it fresh
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  versus overused, I mean, you need to have your speaking points, but don't always say, well,
• 5:48
  you know the name of my company is speak podcasting and let me tell you what speak means
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  like you told me you've already kind of shared that on multiple episodes so maybe you could
• 5:59
  say it in a different way or say it briefly but also point them to past episodes you've done on
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  that yeah i mean that's a great way to re-advertise an old episode i think think about things that you
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  don't share or you might not 100% be comfortable sharing and kind of inch your way into telling
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  things, telling your audience things that are a little bit more personal.
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  And also find ways to
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  find like common ground with the person that you're going to interview.
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  So here's an example
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  of that.
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  Like, I had a past client reach out to me recently, and he was like, hey,
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  you know here's another lady that i worked with in health care and she's a dynamic guest and she
• 6:44
  you know helps people with career transition so i looked at her linkedin and it said that she was a
• 6:51
  religion major and i was like oh you're comfortable like talking about religion cool i've had some
• 6:59
  different chapters of questioning my faith how did you become a religion major did someone say
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  something to you.
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  So yes, she wants to talk about people and their career journeys, but maybe start
• 7:15
  somewhere else and get to the career journey after.
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  Like, go back to what somebody majored in.
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  When did you know you wanted to major in that?
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  Did you start with that or did you end up at that?
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  It seems to me like it's okay to take a detour.
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  It's okay to kind of circle around.
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  it doesn't have to be necessarily one straight uphill and then back downhill as you debrief,
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  as you wrap up the interview.
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  It's okay to take twists and turns.
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  Yes.
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  Did I interpret that right?
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  A hundred percent.
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  And I love that you just did that.
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  I think another really great thing
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  about crafting a killer interview is either if you're going to have a co-host, like they need
• 7:56
  to be able to synthesize your thoughts and kind of restate things in case somebody might've missed
• 8:00
  something.
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  So way to go there.
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  And if, and if the other person doesn't do that, you need to be able
• 8:05
  to do that.
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  So here's some of the things that we covered in this interview that I want you to
• 8:09
  remember from it.
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  And you can kind of leave the listener with that.
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  And, you know, my dad is the
• 8:14
  co-host of my podcast, Better Call Daddy.
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  And I feel like he's really good at doing that.
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  He's
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  also really good at like taking whatever theme we've done in the episode and being like, and
• 8:25
  that's why we have better call daddy because we do that too.
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  You know,
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  like he's good at putting in a plug,
• 8:31
  putting in a call to action,
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  like getting the audience to remember why they're listening in the first
• 8:35
  place.
• 8:36
  And then also like interpreting the guest story and synthesizing their
• 8:41
  thoughts and,
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  and adding his like intergenerational perspective onto whatever the guest
• 8:46
  said.
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  So I think another really beautiful thing about crafting a killer interview
• 8:51
  is to wrap up your thoughts,
• 8:53
  have a call to action.
• 8:54
  and then weigh in on like what the guest shared with you and how you related to it.
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  Okay.
• 9:01
  All right.
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  Because I've done like over a thousand interviews since God knows when I'm,
• 9:07
  I know I don't look a day over 30, but that's one thing that I don't think I've ever really
• 9:12
  done or mastered is the wrap up the debrief.
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  And so perhaps something that would work.
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  And maybe
• 9:21
  I integrated into the podcast about podcasting and into cruise through HTX.
• 9:25
  And I like, this is where I'm asking you and you can sort of be my coach is that what would
• 9:31
  you think of?
• 9:31
  We do the cold opens.
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  What about a cold outro where you're like, well, I talked to Rena today and man, was
• 9:38
  she on fire because she talked about all the ways that talk and talk and talk and talk
• 9:42
  and walk and walk and walk, right?
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  Yeah.
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  Wrap up and then get the CTA.
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  Yeah.
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  Whereas you don't have to form.
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  We don't have to like for this particular conversation.
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  We don't have to thank you, Rena, for coming by the show.
• 9:53
  Oh, absolutely.
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  And don't forget to subscribe to Better Call Daddy.
• 9:57
  Right.
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  And how can we contact you?
• 9:59
  Yeah.
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  Bettercalldaddy.com.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  And so instead, it's like, hey, thanks for coming by the show.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  And then, yeah.
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  So what do you think about that conversation?
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  You know, here's what I got from it.
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  And then list three points.
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  Or you can even say something like, I love that you're talking to inspirational fathers
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  and daddy's girls and finding common ground between the two of them.
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  And I'm a dad.
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  So I relate to that.
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  Right.
• 10:21
  Huh.
• 10:22
  Okay.
• 10:23
  Yeah.
• 10:24
  But you also could just synthesize it kind of like as we go, because like you just did that a second ago where you like tried to understand what I said and then restated it in a better way.
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  There are hosts that do that really well.
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  And I appreciate that because I'm like, oh, wow, I love that you understood what I said and said it even better than me.
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  Well, and thank you.
• 10:43
  Also, I think it's also a function of listening to what the guest is saying.
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  So I was actively listening, not really just waiting and waiting and waiting for Rena to finish talking so I can get to the next question.
• 10:55
  That's an advanced listening skill, though, and an advanced interviewer, because in the beginning, we're all doing that.
• 11:03
  It really takes getting comfortable on the mic to be able to listen and then just respond and be on topic.
• 11:11
  I think with new podcasters, it's good to have like your little list, but be open to kind of switching them up if you have a good follow up question.
• 11:21
  Yeah, it's very easy to forget how comfortable I am with this being here.
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  Yeah.
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  And some people are not.
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  Right.
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  Like this is intimidating to some people.
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  Yes.
• 11:37
  Right.
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  and we're on camera right now
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  and the camera adds a whole other dimension
• 11:42
  and then you add, oh wow, well
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  I've not only got these mics here but then
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  there's a camera that's rolling and then there are these
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  big intimidating lights
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  and then wow, I got these soundproof panels
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  I'm in an actual studio
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  and now I'm getting a panic attack because I'm not
• 11:55
  used to this.
• 11:57
  Yeah, do you have any tricks to get people
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  to not feel like the lights are on and the
• 12:01
  sound panels are behind them?
• 12:05
  Every now and then
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  I will tell somebody who I kind of get is nervous and I'll tell them in a very unironic way,
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  just ignore this and all the lights.
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  We're just going to stare at you awkwardly
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  and just kind of like break the ice by telling them how awkward it is, but try and be funny
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  about it.
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  I hope that makes sense.
• 12:26
  Um, yeah, I think that pointing them out and naming that
• 12:29
  they're there, but they don't bother you as a good idea.
• 12:31
  And also maybe just saying like,
• 12:33
  this is edited yeah so if you totally flub it's all good we cut that out yeah i i i try not to
• 12:40
  say that because i think it you're like more work more yeah it's not edited more work more work and
• 12:48
  then also i think it also plants the seed just like good i don't need to be on top of my game
• 12:54
  because if i mess up good point you know yeah but i mean we tell people the my clients will tell
• 13:02
  people.
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  It's okay.
• 13:03
  It's all pre-recorded.
• 13:04
  It's not live.
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  And that's the beauty of podcasting
• 13:06
  is that it's not live.
• 13:07
  It's not on a local TV affiliate or a radio show where you only have
• 13:11
  two or three minutes to get the point out.
• 13:13
  It's relaxed.
• 13:15
  You know, I am curious, like
• 13:18
  what you see is differences between podcasting and like your radio days of like having to hit
• 13:24
  a post and like deliver exactly like a 30 second spot.
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  Oh my God.
• 13:28
  I just love that you said hitting
• 13:30
  a post it's tough it it came natural oh no wonder you were there so long i loved hitting the post
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  you're like did you hear that no space in between let me tell you when i used to dream about being
• 13:46
  on the radio when i was just when i was starting in college i would actually talk up posts in my
• 13:52
  truck listening to the radio.
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  Like I would, I would literally practice doing that.
• 13:58
  Wow.
• 13:59
  Yeah.
• 14:00
  But, uh, and then, and then I learned this one, this is really getting into the weeds.
• 14:05
  Uh,
• 14:06
  I'll answer your question, but yeah, there's this one trick that this guy, he would, um,
• 14:11
  because when you take caller, you were on the radio.
• 14:13
  Yeah.
• 14:14
  So, you know, this, so, um,
• 14:16
  when you take caller 10 or whatever for a contest and sometimes the clock will be ticking because
• 14:20
  if you have a shitty winner.
• 14:23
  Hey, you just,
• 14:23
  Rina, you won $1,000.
• 14:25
  And then,
• 14:26
  Thanks.
• 14:26
  Thanks.
• 14:29
  Or they ummed their whole way, right?
• 14:31
  And so he had this genius trick
• 14:33
  where he would run,
• 14:35
  he would start the song back in cue
• 14:37
  and then reverse the winner
• 14:40
  and it would hit the post
• 14:41
  and then he would mark it
• 14:42
  and then he'd go all the way back in the Vox Pro
• 14:44
  and it would,
• 14:46
  I'm like,
• 14:47
  what are you doing?
• 14:48
  I know what you're doing.
• 14:49
  why did I, why have I never done this before?
• 14:52
  And it was just the most genius hack.
• 14:55
  Wow.
• 14:55
  That's really cool.
• 14:57
  That's like a DJ move.
• 14:58
  That's a serious DJ move.
• 15:00
  And like, this is like over the head of anybody who's listening
• 15:03
  as a podcaster.
• 15:04
  Like, what are you even talking about?
• 15:06
  But it's fun.
• 15:07
  Somehow, some way it shaped
• 15:10
  me into being a producer and host, uh, the same guy that I am now.
• 15:13
  Um, but to answer your question,
• 15:16
  I really like that we can just take our time and chill and we don't have to worry about oh well
• 15:22
  you know I've only got 14 seconds over this Justin Bieber track and oh well you know what I better
• 15:27
  not say this because I don't want to piss off the suits and what do you think because you came from
• 15:34
  not just radio but also tv yeah well when we were doing a shoot at the funeral museum pre our event
• 15:43
  I was noticing even your ability to just stand in front of a prop and deliver a line.
• 15:52
  So that can be good for doing an ad.
• 15:56
  That can be good for doing an intro, a cold intro, a cold outro.
• 16:00
  Like, I feel like you have an advantage there.
• 16:04
  And I also, yeah, like I've tried to incorporate that even into my own intros.
• 16:12
  so remember i told you that we're going to talk about the trip to dallas
• 16:16
  where reena was uh you you were working the room so hard and you were you were a room manager yes
• 16:24
  okay technically a room manager technically a room manager work i mean just like working it
• 16:30
  and um reena was reena was going to people that i'm guessing you've never met never met
• 16:38
  And she would have them just say the name of her show and the different inflections you got and the different styles.
• 16:47
  Isn't that fun?
• 16:48
  Yeah.
• 16:49
  Yeah.
• 16:49
  The first girl who encouraged me to do it, like she came up to me.
• 16:54
  And so I'm sorry to cut you off.
• 16:55
  Yeah.
• 16:56
  Like explain why you did that and how you're incorporating that into Better Call Daddy because that is genius and that is something that people can learn.
• 17:04
  Yeah.
• 17:04
  Thank you.
• 17:05
  so a girl came up to me and she was like you know just friendly and asking me about the event and i
• 17:11
  don't even know why i said it to her but i just i liked her vibe she had a whole kind of like
• 17:15
  interesting look she had a shaved head and she was bubbly and the girlfriend that she was with
• 17:21
  looked like a yogi and i was like just her approach and how she came up to me i felt like
• 17:27
  was interesting it would make a fun clip and i had done it a couple times in the past where like
• 17:31
  if a bartender looks like a character, I'd be like, hey, can I get you to say, I think you
• 17:35
  better call daddy because he like looks like a character.
• 17:38
  She looked like a character.
• 17:40
  And so
• 17:40
  I was like, can I get you kind of like how you just approached me to be like, hey, girl, I think
• 17:44
  you better call daddy just like very casual.
• 17:46
  Yeah.
• 17:46
  So that's back to even what we were talking about.
• 17:48
  Just give somebody a one line, give somebody an open, give somebody something easy to say
• 17:54
  that they can repeat and that can make great content.
• 17:57
  So she did it.
• 17:58
  And she was like, even
• 17:58
  better than that.
• 17:59
  Let's take your phone and go do this to 20 people.
• 18:01
  I was like, Oh, yeah, I love
• 18:02
  what you're drinking.
• 18:04
  And so and then the first one I posted it like one in the morning, like
• 18:08
  from a bar, you know, didn't even matter.
• 18:12
  The hashtags didn't even matter.
• 18:14
  Anything like
• 18:15
  we're out at one in the morning.
• 18:17
  Was that the pickleball night?
• 18:19
  That was at the chicken and
• 18:20
  pickle.
• 18:21
  And honestly, I went up to this girl and I was like, what's the drink that's being chosen
• 18:26
  by the most people.
• 18:28
  Like she had like six choices.
• 18:29
  I was like, which one are the ladies grabbing?
• 18:32
  And she was like, well, actually this one.
• 18:33
  And I was like, okay, let's do that again on camera.
• 18:35
  That's funny.
• 18:36
  And then I was like, better yet,
• 18:37
  can I get you to say better call daddy?
• 18:38
  And then it just, I posted her in like 5,000 views
• 18:42
  with like in the first hour, I was like, okay,
• 18:44
  I'm onto something here.
• 18:45
  And it's so hard to get people to share your podcast,
• 18:49
  but it's not hard to get them to say a funny line
• 18:54
  and to want to connect with you on social.
• 18:55
  So it's like, what channel are you on that you use?
• 18:59
  And she was like, Facebook.
• 19:00
  I'm not really a Instagrammer.
• 19:02
  So I posted it from Facebook, tagged her on Facebook at the bar.
• 19:06
  And then I shared it to my Instagram as well.
• 19:09
  And it just took off.
• 19:10
  And then I was like, oh, man, I can't post all of these in one night.
• 19:14
  I've got like 20 of them.
• 19:15
  I actually, the guy that you noticed on my Instagram.
• 19:18
  So this one guy did like a double chin.
• 19:19
  It was like so funny.
• 19:22
  But I was staggering them.
• 19:24
  I was like airing one a day because you don't want to like put 20 videos up at once.
• 19:28
  Oh, yeah.
• 19:29
  And he was like, oh, I thought I didn't make the cut.
• 19:31
  I was like, there's the line.
• 19:33
  Yes, you made the cut.
• 19:33
  Better call daddy.
• 19:34
  And then another guy was like, and in Portuguese.
• 19:37
  And I'm like, and in Portuguese.
• 19:38
  Better call daddy.
• 19:39
  Hey, girl.
• 19:40
  And better call daddy.
• 19:41
  It was like whatever line they said or they gave me or they DM'd me.
• 19:46
  I just used that.
• 19:47
  And then hashtag better call daddy.
• 19:49
  The name of my show.
• 19:51
  Hashtag chicken and pickle where it was at.
• 19:53
  hashtag iheart that put on the party hashtag podcast movement because everyone's searching
• 19:58
  that right now and it has like gotten me hundreds of new followers within days yeah yeah all because
• 20:06
  of one little trick one little trick and i was even telling you i'm like we had these two hot
• 20:12
  chicks at your party at dr stern's office i'm like get them to say are you brave enough to come
• 20:17
  to speak fast.
• 20:17
  Yeah.
• 20:18
  And let's,
• 20:19
  yeah.
• 20:19
  That's a trick that I'm going to,
• 20:20
  I'm going to start incorporating.
• 20:23
  And so that's,
• 20:24
  that's a beautiful segue.
• 20:25
  That is what we call in the radio world
• 20:26
  and probably TV,
• 20:27
  I guess,
• 20:28
  a beautiful segue
• 20:29
  and to,
• 20:30
  and back
• 20:31
  and to speak fast
• 20:32
  because we're talking about
• 20:33
  crafting a killer interview.
• 20:34
  That's the workshop
• 20:35
  that you're going to be hosting.
• 20:36
  Yes.
• 20:36
  And,
• 20:38
  and so,
• 20:38
  yeah,
• 20:38
  let's get the,
• 20:39
  let's get the elevator pitch
• 20:41
  about like what,
• 20:43
  what your workshop is going to be.
• 20:45
  And then,
• 20:46
  yes.
• 20:46
  Yeah, so my workshop is going to be interactive.
• 20:50
  It is going to be showing you the difference between scared and prepared.
• 20:56
  love that so this is just one of several workshops that we're going to have at speak fest
• 21:01
  2025 night of the living pod because we're fighting the zombie podcast uh plague no more
• 21:07
  zombie podcast we want you to launch your show we want you to maintain your show we want you to keep
• 21:11
  going past episode 50 100 200 and more so we want to see you october 10th and 11th at the national
• 21:18
  museum of funeral history reena is just one of many of my podcast pals that's going to be on hand
• 21:25
  We're going to have, in addition to the workshops, panels and keynote speeches.
• 21:30
  And we're going to get you all the information and everything you need to know at speakpodcasting.com slash speakfest2025.
• 21:42
  Thank you, Reena.
• 21:43
  Thank you.
• 21:44
  I got a daddy to participate with me.
• 21:47
  We're talking about things that I don't normally talk about.
• 21:49
  And we are jazzed for Speakfest 2025.
• 21:53
  Make sure you're there.
• 21:54
  You don't want to miss this.