The success of a podcast interview largely comes down to the questions that you ask the interviewee.
Interviewing isn’t difficult provided you’ve done your homework, remember to keep the interview focused and succinct and be prepared with stellar questions. But first, you need to encourage people to want to be interviewed by you on your podcast.
How to persuade people to be interviewed
A lot of podcasters get really stressed when it comes to convincing experts in their niche to be interviewed. And this anxiety increases if the person is extremely well known or successful. For that, we have one piece of advice – stop overthinking it and just ask them. You’d be surprised how many people want that particular expert on their podcast, but are too nervous to ask. Just ask!
Most people love to give their opinions, and probably 9 out of 10 that you ask will agree to an interview.
Before you ask someone really known (even famous) for an interview, you should establish a track record first. Even a little history of interviewing on your podcast can go a long way. If you have a large listener base and have interviewed a number of other people in your niche, then they are far more likely to say yes.
Of course, that doesn’t mean a large audience is a requirement. After all, that expert you have your eyes on already has a built-in audience. More importantly, the expert is going to want to hear one of your recent interviews.
- Are you a strong interviewer?
- Do you ask engaging and thought-provoking and focused questions?
- Is your style boring?
- Do you talk about yourself every chance you get?
Think about your listeners
When you’re conducting interviews for podcasting, always think about your listeners first. They’re your lifeblood and regardless how much you enjoy the person you’re interviewing, make sure your audience is equally excited.
The more that you know about your audience, the better your interview will turn out. You can ask questions that you know your audience wants the answers to.
Reach out to your listeners on social media and ask them for questions and ideas. Directly relate to them and get them involved in the interviewing process.
Discuss your theme with the interviewee before you conduct the interview. Come up with a list of questions prior to the interview and send them to the interviewee. Ask them to add some questions too if they want. Make sure your interviewee agrees to everything before you start the interview.
Get some background, if it’s truly pertinent
Most of your listeners will be interested to know how your guest started out in life. You will get the best results if you treat the interview as a story. So find out where your interviewee was born, where they grew up, and what kind of early experiences they had.
So you could consider the following questions:
- Where were you born?
- What’s your educational background?
- Did they work any jobs before entering their chosen field?
- How did they become so good at their subject?
These kinds of questions should lead you nicely into the current success.
But along with these background questions comes a warning. If the individual you’re interviewing is extremely well known, meaning his or her background is common knowledge or easily searchable online – don’t get too repetitious. If you’re asking questions that your audience already knows the answers to, they’ll stop listening. Put your audience first and get to know their knowledge level surrounding your interviewee.
Why is the interviewee so successful?
Your listeners will want to know how your interviewee became so successful, especially if your podcast is in the marketing, business or entrepreneur niche.
People will willingly talk about this, but they may not be willing to discuss all of their secrets. You need to respect that and not push for more during the interview. Get a sense of what the subject is comfortable disclosing beforehand and stick to it.
Ask your guest to identify the steps that they took to get where they are today. Did they undergo any mindset changes to get there and if so, how did they achieve these changes? Your aim here is to show that there is a process and that your listeners can emulate the same success.
This is your chance to create relatability between yourself, your interviewee and your audience. You’re also providing actionable information and knowledge here that your audience will appreciate.
Ask “How” questions
Your job as the interviewer is to provide clarity for your listeners. If you’re interviewing someone, and they say “I became an expert copywriter in 2013”, it’s your job to encourage the subject to expand on that statement. Ask them how they became an expert copywriter, and even ask how they realized they had achieved expert status.
“How” questions are the best for drilling down and opening new doors. Sometimes an interviewee may be a bit vague with their answers, and asking them How will open them up more.
Certainly, you don’t want to become a broken record or a “How” machine with every follow-up. Take different approaches to avoid monotony for both your listeners and your guest. Consider asking for walkthroughs of their most successful day, or their greatest failure and what they learned from it. Dig down with each question, but pay attention to your guest’s voice and back off if your guest becomes agitated or uncomfortable.
A “gotcha” interview is best left for inflammatory hosts, who’s entire following is built on such moments. Their guests, while seemingly surprised by the shocking “gotcha” question, rarely are. After all, those interviewers are well known with an established history.
