How To Conduct A Great Podcast Interview
The success of a podcast interview largely comes down to the questions that you ask the interviewee. It is not that difficult to become a very good interviewer and create podcasts that your listeners will really appreciate. When you achieve this your audience will be hungry for more.
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. The stress rises if the person is really famous. Well here is the best way to do it – just ask them! 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 famous for an interview it is best if you have some kind of track record first. 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.
Think about your Listeners
When you are conducting interviews for podcasting always think about your listeners first. 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.
Discuss this 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. Agree everything before you start the interview.
Get some background
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 education did you have?
- 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.
Why is the Interviewee so Successful?
Your listeners will want to know how your interviewee became so successful. People will willingly talk about this but they may not be willing to discuss all of their secrets. This is fine – don’t push them to do this.
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.
Ask many “How” questions
Your job as the interviewer is to provide clarity for your listeners. So if you are interviewing someone and they say “I became an expert copywriter in 2003” then ask them How they became an expert copywriter and even How did they know 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.
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