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Burn Down the Guest Factory: How to Take Your Podcast Back · Your Mic

• 0:00
  If your podcast calendar looks like a clown car of random experts booked by some agency you've
• 0:06
  never met, this episode is for you because there's a whole cottage industry built on turning your
• 0:13
  show into a guest farm and if you're not careful, you my friend are the free labor.
• 0:22
  Stop me if you've heard this one. There's a booking agency that promises founders and coaches
• 0:27
  will get you on 30 podcasts a month. Massive exposure authority overnight so they
• 0:33
  scrape Apple and Spotify for any show with business leadership or marketing in the title.
• 0:39
  Then what they do is blast the same canned pitch to 500 different hosts and dump whoever says yes
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  onto the calendar. The result is you end up interviewing people your audience doesn't care about
• 0:53
  on topics you did not choose for reasons that don't serve your show or your business but hey,
• 0:58
  at least somebody got the screenshot. I guessed it on 50 podcasts this quarter. Let's be real though,
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  most interview shows are outsourcing the hard work of the show to the guest and that's okay if you
• 1:12
  are fine with zero growth and having a podcast that's for everybody about random and unique
• 1:20
  conversations with interesting people and I've been there. Look, I promise I've been there.
• 1:26
  That's why I did the pivot from Freddie's huge ask podcast to cruise through HTX and then
• 1:33
  why I am about to go into the final season of cruise through HTX tentatively the final season and
• 1:40
  really focus on this show your mic a podcast for new and aspiring podcast hosts with a focus on solo
• 1:52
  episodes. Now back to the interview shows, same five questions every single podcast, same LinkedIn
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  safe answers listeners don't need another half baked TEDx audition crammed into 40 minutes of
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  conversation they need a host who will fight for their attention cut the fluff and pull something
• 2:11
  out of the guest they can't get anywhere else. If your episode could swap guest names and sound
• 2:18
  the same you don't have a show you have a conveyor belt. For a B2B show your guest strategy should
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  be criminally simple. Guests must either match your ideal client profile or teach something so
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  sharp it immediately makes your listener money time or keeps them sane every guest episode must
• 2:38
  answer what will my listener be able to do differently after this conversation if the answer is
• 2:45
  they'll be inspired toss it inspiration without execution is just podcast flavored sugar and we
• 2:53
  all know sugar feeds cancer and you don't want your podcast to be ear cancer.
• 2:59
  Now here's how to detox your calendar you stop being a free PR service and start being a real
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  host kill the auto accept if an email pitch does not match your show's name your audience in a
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  specific episode or angle it goes in the trash period end of story give every guest a job before
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  you book them decide are they a case study proof your method works a prospect someone you'd actually
• 3:25
  like to work with a teacher they bring a skill set your listeners desperately need if they don't
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  fit one of those or all of them you my friend are about to waste an hour of your time what you
• 3:38
  also want to do is write the episode before you invite the person don't think I want to have
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  John Doe on think I want to make an episode called how to launch a show in 30 days without hating
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  your life John Doe happens to be the perfect person to help me teach that topic first guest second
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  always in fact you can go back to previous episodes of mine where I talked to one of my favorite
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  podcast host and a dear friend of mine her name is rena Friedman watch host a better call daddy
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  she is one of the best interviewers on the planet and every single time she has been on my show
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  she has talked about specific tactics related to having a podcast which also want to do is host
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  like it's your show interrupt when they drift yes interrupt one of my other favorite podcasters
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  his name is James Altature he actually does this brilliantly he'll interrupt but then he'll also
• 4:30
  say hey I'm sorry to interrupt but I wanted to ask you that is a gold mine of a hack when it comes
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  to keeping your show focused in just in case your guest goes off topic or starts to kind of get in
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  the weeds with industry jargon I love that hack interrupt when they drift or when they start to
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  not really make sense pull them back to your listener and ask how exactly give me an example until
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  the advice stops being linked in wallpaper and starts being something that your listener can use
• 5:01
  and here's the thing you're not running a charity for people who bought a guessing package you
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  my friend are building and hosting a podcast for listeners who want a transformation who want to
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  get from point A that point A being a pain point that they cannot seem to solve but they're listening
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  to you to help solve it so they can get to whatever their point B is that transformation so many
• 5:26
  shows flatline not because the host is bad but because the show quietly turned into a guest factory
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  I'm speaking from personal experience burn that factory down pick fewer sharper conversations make
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  every guest earn their airtime by serving your listener first and if you want a framework for
• 5:46
  building a podcast that does not depend on random guests to feel valuable grab the speak podcasting
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  roadmap it walks you through defining your audience your promise your format so you know exactly who
• 5:59
  should sit across from you and why send me an email I'll shoot it over to you Freddie with a
• 6:05
  Y at speakpodcasting.com thanks so much for listening