Yesterday I wrote about learning to be a good guest for doing media spots. Today I’m going to give you some tips to being a good guest on podcasts. Here’s a quick bit of background, I co-host a podcast called the Odd and Offbeat Podcast and also am the co-host of the podcast for the … Continue reading “Podcast Guest Tips…”
Yesterday I wrote about learning to be a good guest for doing media spots. Today I’m going to give you some tips to being a good guest on podcasts. Here’s a quick bit of background, I co-host a podcast called the Odd and Offbeat Podcast and also am the co-host of the podcast for the soon to be released Moisture Festival, which is the largest variety arts festival in the world.
My role as co-host of the Moisture Festival Podcast is to interview performers from around the world. One thing that has surprised me is how many don’t know how to be interviewed. Here are a few tips to be a good podcast guest:
- Speak into the microphone and stay on the mic.
- Come prepared. Ask if they have sample questions, or write out some questions and have answers to these. Even if these questions never come up, you’ve put thought into the interview and that will show in the final product.
- Don’t think you are interesting, plan to be interesting.
- Arrive a few mins early to chat with the host(s). That will allow you to relax a little bit and get all the awkward chit chat out of the way.
- Don’t speak with your hands. On a purely audio medium, no one listening can see you. Also when you talk with your hands, you will be whacking stuff like the table and the mics pic all of that up.
- Before the recording ask if things can be edited. Especially if you are telling a story and accidentally whack something with your hand, can you start over and have them edit the part with the distraction.
- Answer questions and don’t ramble. If you are asked a question and you don’t want to answer it, tell them that. Don’t ramble a “non-answer” for two minutes.
Of all of these, the big one is to stay on the mic! When editing an episode, if I have to go in and bump all of your audio and no one else’s audio, that’s a huge pain in the butt. Hopefully you can go out and be a better podcast guest!
