The one question you should never ask your podcast guests

I’ve just finished up from virtually attending the Evolutions by Podcast Movement Conference in America. It was amazing and I’ve learned so much, I can’t wait to pass it on!

Today’s episode is all about the ONE question you should NEVER ask your podcast guests.

I know it sounds odd! But this question is too boring and general and leaves you open for a 10 minute backstory that takes up all of your time and loses the interest of your audience.

I’ve been editing podcasts for 8 years, listened to countless episodes and I’ve heard this question over and over again.

I’ll run you through how to handle providing the relevant background information in a very tidy and concise manner that allows you to jump straight into the juicy content of your episode.

We’re also launching Pod Lovers Plus very shortly! If you want to learn how to grow your show, attend masterclasses, and learn structured detailed information to get over a plateau - join the Pod Lovers Community and you’ll be the first to know when it’s released.

Transcript:

00:00
Welcome to Pump Up Your Pod What's going on everybody, I hope you are having a fabulous start middle enter your week, depending on when you're listening to this, I just got off the back of what was the best few days. At the podcast, evolutions Podcast Movement conference. It was in LA, I wasn't going to fly to LA. Too much going on COVID. You know, I don't want to expose myself as a staff, we had a bunch of launches going on. Like, there's just a lot of things going on right now. At some point, I want to actually attend in person because I really, absolutely loved it. It was so good. I learned so much. I have so many notes, so many things that are now going to be rolled out into the business, things that I'm going to talk to our clients about. Stuff for the let's get launchy course stuff for the pod lovers. And there's an extra little thing for the pod lovers that is coming soon to which I'm very excited about. And it really reaffirmed a whole bunch of things that I already talked about, which was great. It made me go I am a great educator, I know what I'm talking about. This has just been reinforced by all these massive people in the podcasting industry in the US. The US is the biggest market that there is for podcasting, it's also been running the longest. So if you want to learn something, you go there, because they're ahead of us.

So today, I wanted to talk about something that has nothing to do with any of that. If you have a podcast, or you haven't started a podcast yet, and you're going to soon and you're going to be interviewing people, there is one question that I want you to never ask your guests. And you might be like, Wow, that seems weird. This seems like a question that everyone would ask why wouldn't I ask that? I'm gonna tell you why. So the question is, tell me about yourself. Or some version of that. How did you get to where you are? That is one of the most boring questions that you can ask a guest. If you have a podcast already, and you have asked guests this in the past, don't hate me, don't feel bad about yourself that I've just rip you to shreds for asking that question. You didn't know any better. That's fine. But I want you to not ask this question anymore. Because if you ask that question, you know, tell me a bit about yourself, or how did you get to where you are? That is such an open ended question. And it leaves you open for a 10 minute backstory. Like, you know, I started to think about what I wanted to do when I was five years old, like some origin story, which is just so long, and the audience doesn't really care about it.

So if you ask a question like that, you're going to get almost definitely a boring, long, waffly response. And I have edited so many podcast episodes. At this point. This business is almost eight years old, I've been editing podcasts for eight years, I have listened to a lot of episodes. And it would be 99.9% of the time that that question is just not worth asking. It doesn't mean that the audience doesn't want to know about this particular guests that you have one, but that's what your show notes are for. So that's where you've got your bio, that's what you've got more information about the guest. Or if you're doing a little intro to the guest, that's where you wrap that into a nice little delicious package for someone in like a minute where you go. Today, I have this guest on who does x y Zed and did these few things to get to this point. So you've done a summary within a minute instead of letting that guest talk about something that the audience doesn't really care about.

When you are planning your guest episodes. You have to think about that guest specifically, what are they good at? What area of the industry are they in? What education what tips, what thing do you want them to share with your audience? What is the value that you think your audience is going to get from that guest? And ask those questions. Straight up straight into it. Welcome. Let's say the person's name is Jane. Welcome Jane to the Pump Up Your Pod Podcast. I'm so happy to have you. First question I really want to know today is how do you get your makeup to stick on your face?

04:50
Whatever it is, like a question that is very targeted, very specific about a topic that is related to something you're already Vince wants to know about and that your guest is really knowledgeable in anything other than that is waffle. And especially because you have such a limited time when you have a guest on the first few minutes are key to that listener deciding whether they're going to keep listening to this guest or they find this guests boring. And as editors, we do a great job of tidying it up of tightening it up of doing what we can with the information with the edits with the raw audio that were provided. But if you ask a question, and you get a response like that, it's like polishing a turd, you know, we kind of have to just use what we can and edit what we can out of it to make it sound as good as possible. But it's not going to be as good as having that content there. So think about that, when you're crafting your episodes, and you've got guests on, get rid of the faff, get rid of that, you know, making them feel comfortable stuff where they talk about themselves and all that sort of thing. Have that chat with them offline, you get to know them so that you can craft an intro. That makes sense, that's succinct, that is quick. And then allow that conversation apt to direct in the right way for you to get what you want out of it. And to make it feel really powerful.

That's all I wanted to say today. Just don't ask that question. Ask something else. I've said this on the podcast before. Take some time to actually think about what you want to ask, do a bit of research on the guest. And ask questions that are going to be exciting to the listener. Because the guests that you have on the show deserves to be asked good questions, so that they can give you good responses. Sometimes it's going to be a mess anyway, sometimes your guests are going to be so nervous. They don't know how to answer questions properly, they're going to waffle anyway. Their audio is bad. Like there's so many things that can go wrong with a guest episode. But if you know that you've done your part, and you've done a little bit of research, and you're asking good questions, then that is quite a lot of the battle.

That's it for today, ladies and gents. I hope you've enjoyed that short, sharp, little snappy piece of information. And I hope you don't feel too bad about all the times that you've asked that question. It's fine, it is fine. If you want to learn more, head to the pod lovers.com. Join our free community. That's where I share curated information that I have learned that I'm researching stuff that I feel could be helpful as a whole to the podcasting community. And you can join and, you know, interact with like minded people from within there as well. We are going to be launching pod lovers plus very shortly for those that have been going with their podcast for a while. And they need that extra bit of support. So they want to learn how to grow properly. They want some q&a sessions with me. They want a masterclass where I teach about something specific that I've learned in that month. It's not going to be a huge commitment. And it's not going to be a huge commitment as far as time as well. But it is a place that you will be able to learn more structured, detailed information specifically for growth of your show, to get over the hurdle of that plateau that most of you get with your podcast. That's it. I'll have more information about that soon. But if you join pod lovers, the free community you will be the first to know about it. So yeah, get on on it. Hope you have a good day everybody. Talk to you later.