Mastering Podcast Guesting: Strategies for Effective Promotion and Networking

Transform your business approach by mastering the art of podcast guesting! How can you effectively promote your business while adding immense value to a podcast host's audience? Join me, Tracey Wilson, as I unpack the essential strategies to shift your mindset and embrace the role of a podcast guest. Understand the unique benefits of being a guest versus hosting your own show, and gain practical tips for preparing impactful guest appearances that resonate with listeners and expand your network.

Ever wondered what makes a media kit irresistible to podcast hosts? This episode takes you through the crucial elements of creating an engaging one-sheet, from crafting a captivating personal tagline to developing proprietary content frameworks. Learn the importance of having a curated list of questions ready to manage the conversation flow and calm your nerves. Whether you're aspiring to become a sought-after podcast guest or are curious about hosting your own show, this episode provides valuable resources and insights to help you unlock your potential. Don't miss out on the opportunity to make your voice heard; the world is waiting for your unique contributions!

Podcasting with Purpose is sponsored by Youzability www.youzability.com  - Get your Website, Funnels and Memberships created fast (perfect for podcasters) 

Chapters

• 0:00 Leveraging Podcasts as a Guest
• 13:32 Media Kit for Podcast Guesting
• 23:40 Unleashing Your Inner Show Host

Transcript

Tracy Wilson: 0:35

Hey, good morning everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Unlocked Show. I'm your host, tracey Wilson. In today's episode, I want to talk about being a guest on other people's podcasts, and for some of you, you might have been sitting around thinking, gosh, I need to get the word out about my business. And I was looking through my Facebook just this morning, actually, and I saw some really good friends of mine who have opened up new businesses in New Zealand actually, and they were talking about what they're having to do to get people to come into their businesses, and it dawned on me that you know what? We've got this amazing tool at our fingertips that we can use on the regular, which is either doing live shows like this, because it's pretty darn simple when you know the tools, the resources that you need and how to do it and then, secondly, how to be a guest on other people's podcasts is a fantastic way of being able to get your skills, your expertise and your knowledge out to a much wider audience, and even your products and your services. If you want to jump on to various different podcasts and start talking about those Now. If you think about it, nowadays there are podcasts on all kinds of topics. If you think you're in a business that maybe a podcast is not right for you, think again. Go and have a bit of a look in Apple Podcasts or Stitcher or any of those places, and you'll find podcasts on all kinds of topics. That being said, that provides a huge amount of opportunity for you guys to jump in and start talking about your skills, your expertise and your products.

Tracy Wilson: 2:06

Do you necessarily have to go the full hog and create your own podcast or your own show like this? No, you don't. You can start out by simply being a guest on other people's podcasts. So make it really easy on yourself now to do this. I often get people asking me on yourself Now to do this. I often get people asking me what do I need to do? How do I need to prepare myself? Put myself in the best position? There are over 450,000 podcasts. There are an enormous amount of podcasts and new ones coming to your ears on the regular.

Tracy Wilson: 2:40

So, that being said, when you've made the decision to say, hey, I actually am ready. I want to be a guest on other people's podcasts, what do I need to do? What other things do I need to do to prepare myself to be a guest? The first one I've just covered it is making the mental shift that you are going to be a guest. The first one I've just covered it is making the mental shift that you are going to be a guest on other people's podcasts. So you need to make that mental shift and get yourself mentally prepared to be a guest on other people's podcasts.

Tracy Wilson: 3:11

The next thing you want to think about is, if you are going to be a guest on other people's podcasts, why do you actually want to do that? What's the purpose of doing it? And a lot of people would say, as I just mentioned at the beginning, you might be thinking how do I get more information out about my products and my services? So the immediate question, the immediate thing that most people think of when I ask them this question, is I want to try and sell more of my stuff, and that might sound really obvious, but it's actually an outcome of actually being on the show and if you lead with value, the sales and the opportunities will come. So the very first thing, you actually want to do. So, even though this is a bit of a what do you call it? A question that I'm going to, a rhetorical question that I'm going to answer for you and it is the reason we want to do it.

Tracy Wilson: 3:58

It is that we can add value to other people's lives and to other people's shows. That's our very first reason we want to do it. If you come at it from an angle of I want to go in there and I want to try and sell, then you're probably not going to find yourself on very many podcasts, because a lot of podcasts hosts won't enjoy that type of angle and, secondly, people get sick of listening to that sell mentality all the time. So you want to come at it from a point of view of you're wanting to give as much as you possibly can and add value to both the host and adding value to their listeners. There's an interesting thing that we talk about in terms of whether or not you want to be a host of your own show or you want to be a guest on somebody else's show, and we often say that being a host.

Tracy Wilson: 4:45

So creating your own show like this really gives you the opportunity to showcase your expertise. It positions you well, it creates influence and authority. So if you're wanting to elevate your influence and authority, then you would create your own live show or your own podcast, you'd be the host of that. When you're being a guest on other people's shows, the great thing about that is you're actually expanding your networks. So, if you think about for a moment, that host has spent a lot of time building their expertise, building their influence and their authority and they've created an audience for themselves. They're now giving you the opportunity to reach that audience. So, instead of you having to work very hard to try and build up an audience yourself, you have the opportunity to be able to add value to that host's audience and actually tap into and be able to reach that audience really easily, because the host has done a lot of the hard yards and the legwork for you. They've done a lot of the work in setting up the show and the podcast behind the scenes. They'll do a lot of the work in terms of promoting the show before and after you are the guest on the show.

Tracy Wilson: 5:58

So you want to make sure that when you are appearing on this show, that you've done everything you possibly can to prepare as well as you possibly can, a to get yourself booked on a show and then, secondly, so that you can actually show up and, like I said, lead with value and be prepared enough that you're able to hold a really good conversation. So you want to understand who our audience is. So, before you even get you know, you go down the rabbit hole of whose podcast should I be on. You want to understand very clearly who is it that you are trying to help change your life? Who are you trying to inform? Who are you trying to work with? Who are you trying to influence? You want you trying to work with. Who are you trying to influence? You want to really understand that, because there's no point in being on other people's podcasts that are in a totally that attract a completely different audience than that that you are looking to serve. So that's probably the very first thing you want to start considering too.

Tracy Wilson: 6:56

And then you also want to make sure that. Are you ready to have being a guest on other people's podcasts as part of your ongoing marketing strategy? And I just want to say that again as part of your ongoing marketing strategy? So if you're not ready, if you're dabbling in it and you're going to do a few here and a few there, that's okay, but it's probably not likely to be part of your long-term marketing strategy. So this is very much a conscious decision to be a guest on other people's show and be doing that on a regular basis.

Tracy Wilson: 7:28

The next thing you want to think about is what is your availability? Do you have the time to be able to do this? And, if you do, what days of the weeks or what times are you going to make yourself available? Because, again, you don't want to go out starting to pitch yourself to various different podcasts only to find out that in your time zone that it might be 3am or 2am in the morning. That's totally okay if you're prepared to get up at that hour of the morning, but if you're not, you want to make sure that you're actually looking for podcasts that will either air record or air or record at a time that is suitable to you and a reasonable hour of the day, because you don't want to be waking up in the middle of the night trying to put your best foot forward and I've done that a number of times and been able to pull it off but you don't want to be doing that on the regular.

Tracy Wilson: 8:17

The next thing you want to think about is your environment. Okay, and a lot of people don't often think about this, and I heard one of the guests that I had on my show. I think it was last week and he was talking about how he had a guest come onto his show and there was a lot of noise, there was a lot of stuff going on in the background and he was trying to determine where is this person. In this case, he was doing a podcast it was audio only and only to find out that the person was rushing. They were stuck in traffic Only to find out that the person was rushing. They were stuck in traffic and they were trying to be the guest on a podcast from their car and it's really difficult for the host, as well as the person being the guest, to try and again put their best foot forward and be present in that podcast if they are distracted and trying to drive. And, as we now know, if you're in Australia you get caught doing that sort of stuff You're in for a very big fine. So that's probably the case right around the world. So just be mindful of that.

Tracy Wilson: 9:15

Make sure that you are prepared, that you've got the right environment set up. So when I'm talking about environment, you want to make sure that you've got a place in your house. So in my house. I've got my own little office, want to make sure that you've got a place in your house. So in my house I've got my own little office. It's at the back of my house, it's my place. This is where I come to do my work and my shows, and I'm able to do it without a lot of interruptions. People are not walking past me not now anyway, because I've solved that problem and those sorts of things. So you want to make sure that you've got the right sort of environment.

Tracy Wilson: 9:45

The other thing that you want to think about is your background. So do you have to have anything fancy? Do you have to go out and buy yourself this really fancy background? No, you don't. You might just want to put a nice bookcase in the background, some flowers, a nice color on the wall. Whatever it is that you're going to do, just make sure that it's well organized in the back, because, again, you might think that's quite trivial, but when, particularly if you're doing a live show or a video show, what's going on in the background can be extremely distracting and can take away from what you are speaking about. So you just want to make sure that that is the case.

Tracy Wilson: 10:18

Sometimes it can add to the humor of the show. I can recall having a senator from the United States actually on one of my shows a few months back and it was quite funny because, as she was trying to be all very professional, in the background was the cleaner doing the cleaning for the night and he obviously realized that there was something going on and did a little bit of a funny little dance in the background. So we thought that was a bit hilarious. But anyway, those sorts of things can be distracting, but that just goes to show the sort of stuff that gets noticed even though it's in the background of your set. The other is making sure that you've got a good microphone, even some headset One of the things that was a bit funny someone's having a bit of a chuckle here One of the things that a lot of people don't do and again, this might sound really simple, but it's even putting on a pair of earbuds or a headset on when you're doing either a live show or doing a podcast, because it reduces the amount of echo. So you want to make sure that you do that and you're not getting any feedback from any of your equipment by utilizing having a headset on, and it can be just something as simple as plugging in the earbuds from your phone so that you're not getting that feedback.

Tracy Wilson: 11:33

And another little tip that I want to give you guys is background noise. So if you're having trouble and what you're finding is that when you're doing recordings you're getting a lot of background noise, there's actually an application that you can download. It's a Chrome app and it's called CRISP K-R-I-S-P CRISP. So you can download that and it really helps to reduce the background noise If you're using recording equipment or recording software such as StreamYard. Streamyard does a fantastic job of being able to eliminate a lot of the background noise, but also the microphone that you use will will help in that case too.

Tracy Wilson: 12:10

So I've covered microphone, your background. I've covered off the use of a headset, so it might sound. I don't use this. Obviously you're seeing me have the little what do you call this? The voice handle or whatever you want to call it on my headset. Obviously I'm not using that right now. I use this for other purposes, but I certainly use it for the sound so that it's not coming back through my computer and you're not hearing that echo. Okay, so now we've covered off some of the fundamental things.

Tracy Wilson: 12:35

The next things you want to start thinking about is your website. So have you got your website up to scratch? Is it up to date with relevant and current information? The number of times that I see people either not having a website, so not having their own personal brand of websites If you're going to be on other people's podcasts, they're going to be looking you up I can guarantee that and you want to make sure that you've got your websites looking nice, that you've got the right sort of information on there and it's in alignment with what you're going to be speaking about. You don't have a bakery and then, all of a sudden, you're speaking about, I don't know, watches. It's a crazy example there, but you get my drift. So you want to make sure that you're in alignment with that and when you're providing them with the links to your website and to your social profiles, that it all makes sense that they can look at that and say, yeah, she talks about that on the regular. She must be an expert at it.

Tracy Wilson: 13:33

The other thing that you want to do is you want to make sure that you've got your media kit ready to go Now. This is probably the place where a lot of people get stuck because it requires you to write about yourself, and if you're like most people don't like to do that and in most cases we actually humble things down and in this case, these are the times on your website and in your other platforms you've got to really brag about yourself. That's the times where you've got to pull out that inner bragger and start talking about all the great things that you do, but you want to do it very succinctly and there's a way in which you do it to create your media sheet, or also known as a one sheet or media kit. So what do you need to have in this media kit? Very simple I'm going to give you guys a tool today that you can go, you can download, and I'm going to give you a document which runs through everything that you should have on your media kit and then also a template. So it's just a plug, fill in the gaps, plug and play kind of template that you can use. That will help you get your media sheet up to date and get you ready so that you can be an amazing guest on other people's podcasts. So what sort of stuff do you need to have on there? Like I said, it's one sheet, so you don't have loads and loads of room to be able to write lots of stuff. So it's very succinct.

Tracy Wilson: 14:51

First thing you want to talk about is who are you? What about you? Why should they have you on their show? What makes you so special? What makes you qualified to speak about what you're going to be speaking about? And at the top, you might even want to have some form of tagline, right? So, again, in the template that I provide you and in the information I give you when you go and download it, it's got a lot more tools and will walk you through how to do this very simply. The next thing you want to do is I always think it's nice to have your mission on there. What are you trying to do? What changes is it that you are trying to create in this world? Why are you doing what you do? So, a little few sentences, a paragraph about your mission is always nice to have on there.

Tracy Wilson: 15:36

The next thing that you want to start thinking about is you want to get together at least one to six speaking topics right, so you might speak about. You have a particular genre that you talk about. So, for example, the Unlocked show right, so you might speak about. You have a particular genre that you talk about, so, for example, the Unlock Show, right? So I talk about creating your online business. I talk about podcasting and creating your own show. I talk about elevating that with influence and authority by creating your own book. So there's three different things that I talk about, but they're all in alignment, all in the same category of creating a freedom-based lifestyle.

Tracy Wilson: 16:09

So, if you can think about it from that perspective, what is it that you do? And I know my good friend, vicky Helm, whenever she's doing this, when she's writing books, she talks about the nutshell message. What do you do? Pull it all together, put it in a nutshell and allow your potential person who's going to be booking you to understand what it is that you do really quickly. So put together one to six speaking topics Makes it super simple for the host to actually get you booked, but then also to come up with a subject that they are going to get. The more shows you are likely to be on Aside from, you must get on there and do a really good job, of course. So this is about getting booked in the first instance. So make it really easy on the booking agent and also the show host by providing them with these things. So one to six topics that you can speak on.

Tracy Wilson: 17:12

The next you want to think about is do you have frameworks, methods or formulas? So, if you haven't already created these, I talk about these a lot, with my students coming up with proprietary formulas, methods and frameworks, because when you can create that, it makes it really simple, A for you to be able to teach it, but, secondly, for you to be able to recall the information and be able to speak about it again easily. For you to be able to recall the information and be able to speak about it again easily and you'll hear me talk a lot about frameworks, the methods and formulas because they thread throughout all of those three things that I've spoken about how to create your online programs, how to create your own show, how to create your own books. They get threaded throughout all three of those things. So that's super important. So just really take a moment to think about those. How do you make something proprietary? You create your own special formula, your own method and your own frameworks, right? So you want to make sure that you've got those, because it makes it easy again for you to be able to talk about those Makes them also a little bit intriguing.

Tracy Wilson: 18:14

People are interested. If I said to you, hey, do you want to hear about the ACE method or do you know what the ACE method is? Most people would say, no, I don't know what that is, but I'm intrigued. What is the ACE method? And so then that gives you the opening to be able to continue to chat and talk about that and continue to add value. Then you want to also think about 10 questions that you would be ready to answer.

Tracy Wilson: 18:39

So if a show host was to ask you questions and what this actually does for you guys is it actually puts you in the driver's seat, so no longer are you sitting. So you can imagine that, and I'm imagining this. I'm taking myself back to the first few times that I did a podcast and I didn't have all of these things. I just had come have me on your show. Maybe people knew about me and wanted to have me, but I didn't really know what they were going to ask me.

Tracy Wilson: 19:02

So what happens? The nerves start happening because you're not sure if you're going to be able to answer the questions that they pose to you. You're not sure if you're going to say and do the right thing right. So your anxiety levels of anxieties tend to rise. What you want to do to ensure to help yourself out a little bit is to actually pre-prepare the questions and provide them to your show host. So come up with one to ten questions again that are in alignment with the topics that you are speaking about. Come up with one to ten questions that you would be ready to answer at a blink of an eye.

Tracy Wilson: 19:39

So if somebody asked you that question, you could answer it very easily and potentially you've even got a story that goes with it, because stories are also important. So you don't need to provide the show host with the stories prior to you being booked on the show, but you want to have those stories up your sleeve. So they might be, it could be a story, something that's happened to you in the past, it might be an analogy, it could be something that's happened to somebody else, but something that enables you to create a story around the subject or the question that is being asked. So just have a bit of a think about those two and jot them down, so underneath each of your questions again, not giving these stories to your, to that booking agent or to the host before the show, but you're certainly writing them down so that you could recall them really quickly and easily if you had to.

Tracy Wilson: 20:32

And then you also want to start thinking about are there other tools and resources that you could provide the viewers and the listeners of the shows that you are appearing on? Why is this important One? You probably got some stuff that you would like to provide, but, secondly, it also gives you an opportunity to be able to, let's say, make a big switch of the audience. So where, again, where you're leading with value, you're not selling anything, but what you are doing is you're providing additional value by way of saying, hey, I've got a free gift, or here's a free cheat sheet, or something that would be useful for them again in alignment with what you've just spoken about. And that way for them again in alignment with what you've just spoken about, and that way, that's going to send traffic to your website and or your landing pages, and it gives them an opportunity to opt in to what you're speaking about. So, just as I've just spoken about today, as I was going through this, often, as I'm preparing for these shows, I get loads and loads of ideas.

Tracy Wilson: 21:33

And as I was preparing for this, I'm like there's a couple of things that I think would be super useful for anybody who's interested in being a guest on other people's shows, one of which I already had prepared. I've had it for a while. It's something that I provide to people on the regular. You can get it on my website by going to tracymwilsoncom. I'm also going to give it to you here there is, so I'm just going to pop this up on the screen. So if you go to tracymwilsoncom, forward, slash speakers, dash kit, dash template that will actually give you a little booklet and a guide and it will walk you through how to get yourself prepared, and then it will also provide you with that template that I mentioned a little bit earlier. But as I was preparing for today's show, it dawned on me that one of the things that would also be super useful would be a checklist. So I'm going to prepare that checklist I'm almost done with it, because I only thought of it sort of 10 minutes before the show and I'll make sure that it gets popped into the description or the show notes for today, so that you guys, too, can go away and grab that checklist. Make sure that you've covered all of the things before you get yourself onto the speaking circuit and start appearing on other people's shows so that you can get booked really quickly.

Tracy Wilson: 22:47

Before I jump off today, I want to leave you with a couple of really awesome tools. So, if you are thinking about doing this first thing you want to do, go and download those two freebies that I'm giving you guys today and keep your eyes peeled for the checklist. But then head on over to podmatchcom. Again, I'll put the link into the show notes today. Head on over there because you can find some amazing guests to be on your show and if to be on your show if you're going to be a show host. But equally, you can find some amazing guests to be on your show and if to be on your show if you're going to be a show host. But equally, you can find some amazing shows for you to appear on as a guest. Also, you can go to a platform called audreyio. Go and have a look there and you will again find some amazing shows that you may find are useful for you and that so you have some great synergy and alignment with and you want to appear on their show because you think that you can add some value.

Tracy Wilson: 23:40

So, that being said, today, guys, I'm going to say thanks very much for joining me. It's a quick show today, but I hope that I've covered a whole lot of stuff today, but I hope you found this really useful. I hope you go away and you grab those couple of freebies that I've created for you, because they really will help you in getting prepared to be on other people's shows. And if you want to take this further and you want to obviously create your own show, you can reach out to me and we can have a bit of a chat about how we make that happen. Go and live your life unlocked. Go and unlock that inner show host or show guest that's sitting inside of you, because people are waiting for you to be a guest on their shows.