Insider Tips For Finding Guests For Your Podcast

This is Tools of the Podcast Trade, where you can learn about the tools and resources you can use to start and grow your podcast. Tune in this week as we talk about the help you need to remove the mystery from podcasting so you can become a successful podcaster that can reach your audience where they are. Hello, fellow podcasters, today I wanted to do a solo episode on guesting Finding guests for your podcast. If that's the format you choose for your podcast, then this episode is for you. Now, how do you find guests for your podcast? I know you probably started off thinking that you would ask your friends and family, but that's not always a good option. It's not a sustainable option, but it might be hard for you to find to get your friends and family to agree to be on your podcast. That's just how it is. I had a guest the other day I think it was Timmy B who said if you're looking for your friends and family to support your project or your business or your podcast, then you're going to be disappointed, so don't. If they show an interest, then that's fine, but don't depend on them to support your podcast, because that's just how life is. So how do you find guests? Where do you find them? I think the easiest place to start is on social media, where you are already a member. Are you a member of a group? Are you on Facebook? Are you on Clubhouse in a room? Do you follow people on Instagram or LinkedIn or Reddit or Quora? Any of those platforms will help you get guests for your podcast. It will depend on your topic, where you go, which group you join. For example, on Solo Moms Talk, my other podcast, I joined several single moms group and I contributed to the group. I joined the group for years, being an active member. I didn't talk about my podcast, I just talked about what was being discussed in the group. Lot of single moms have questions about single parenting, and so it was a great group for me to be in Because that was my audience and it gave me a chance to see what my audience was talking about, what was top of mind for them. So that's a very good place to get guests for your podcast. Facebook, clubhouse, instagram or LinkedIn, reddit or Quora. You can also join podcasting group Groups that were created for podcasters. Some are created for new podcasters, some are created for podcasters looking for guests and some are created for podcasters looking to be a guest on other people's podcast, which is something you should be actively doing as well, guesting on other people's podcast. So that's my number one. That's my first place. I wouldn't say it was my number one, but I think it's an easy. It's an easy thing to do. It's an easy way to get guests while you connect a network with your audience. So get involved with those groups and you'll see that you'll get a lot of guests right. The second way I believe you could get guests is, if your topic of discussion accommodates it, you could approach groups or organization that you belong to, whether it's a business group, social group or just a community group that you belong to that you could make it known that you have a podcast or you're starting a podcast on what a topic is, so that you could see if they're interested in being a guest on your podcast. Now, this is where having a trailer really helps. So if you're just starting out, record a two or three minute trailer about what your podcast is about. And in episode eight of Tools of the Podcast Trade, I talk about how to create a mission statement for your podcast using the five W's, and this is a way to keep your why, your mission, your reason for starting your podcast, top of mind. So once you know what your mission is, then you could create your, you could create your trailer for your podcast and you could use that trailer as an introduction to potential guests, especially guests, potential guests in the business or, you know, social Networking community arena. Right, it is also, I think, a good idea to have a podcast one sheet. Podcast one sheet is great if you're Potential guests who look into a podcast house, but it's also a good tool. It's like your podcast resume that you could use to give to these individuals in your community, business networking groups as well. And if you have a website, put your podcast one sheet on your website and Give a link like share a link to potential guests to that podcast one sheet. That will have the links to your social media profile and it works. You've done. If you've authored a book, if you have some group you know, anything that you have going on in your life that pertains to your podcast Should be on that one sheet. So that's two things you'll have to point people to, To show proof of concept. You know, that's your social proof, your trailer. If you haven't, if you have not yet started your podcast, your trailer, which is derived from your mission statement, and your podcast one sheet. So it it makes you appear professional, because you are, and it gives guests an idea of what it is that they're in for, should they agree to be on your podcast. Make sense, hopefully does. The third way you can get guests for your podcast is by joining a podcast guest platform. There are three that I'm familiar with matchmaker FM, podcast guesting pro and and pod match, calm now Podcast guesting. That pro I've never used, but I'm a member of both matchmaker FM and pod match and they both operate in similar ways whereby you join and you you create a profile. You create, you create two profiles you create a profile of your podcast and you create a profile of you yourself so that potential host Could see your profile and ask it to be a guest on their show. So it pays to make these profiles really good and represent who you are. But the podcast guest, the podcast profile, is a way for potential guests to see you know what you're doing with your podcast. That's where you provide a link to your podcast one sheet and provide a link to your trailer so that Potential guests can check you out, check out what you have going on. Hopefully that makes sense now. When you're a member of both pod match and matchmaker, they'll send you emails to you know, to give you a list of potential guests, guests who may be you may be interested in and then you could just go on the platform and send them a message and say you know, reach out to them and see if you guys are a match. I love pod match because for two reasons. Pod match has a very, very vibrant community associated with it called pod pro. They hold events on the host event, their whole summits, and it's a very vibrant community of podcasters. And so it, the community, is free. But whether or not you join pod match, you can join pod pros and Get information and connect with people there. But one of the good things about being a member of pod match is that they pay you to interview guests. Now, isn't that good news? So when you're a member and you interview guests. So that's one big benefit of being a member of the pod match, the pod match guesting platform, is that you actually get paid to interview guests. But from getting guests, from a getting guests perspective, both matchmaker FM and pod match are quite I would say they're quite good. Of course, I do prefer pod match because it has one other advantage over matchmaker, in that Guests can actually schedule an interview with you from the Podmatch platform. You can add your booking link to the platform. They can schedule an interview with you and if you are a pro, if you have a professional membership, they can also sign a guest release which you will get a copy of once it's signed. So Podmatch actually helps you organize your guest. Now I have a suggestion for you when you set that up is make sure that your link when your guest is registering, all the information your guest is including comes to you so you have access to that their emails, their profile, their bio, their photos because you're gonna need that for the interview and for the marketing. I keep my guest profiles on pod page because that's where my podcast automatically goes to, that's where their house automatically wants their publish on pod page, and so I have a guest profile which each guest will go and register. They'll sign the, they'll sign the guest release and they will be able to. I will be able to have access to all that information. Now if you, if your host is captivate FM, you can also do the same with them. So that's part of the guest management process. Right now I don't want to get too far into that, but I also want to let you be aware that if you join a platform like Podmatch where your guests can book from the platform, make sure you have a mechanism whereby to collect your guest's info their social media, their bio, their photo, their email so that you have that to use for the interview and whatever else you agree on for using that. So hope that makes sense to you. So that's covering how to get guests for your podcast, whether you're a new podcaster or not. I put a little bit in there about if you are a new podcast, so what to do and how to attract guests using the podcast, one sheet and having a trailer. The other thing is that on Podmatch you can actually record a short YouTube. You could record a short video to potential guests or host who want to find out more about you. You could do that so you could join social media platform, connect with your target audience. Please don't be rude and spam people, but just be a contributor and it will come back. I've had so many guests. I'm six months out on Solamum Start because of how many guests I've had. I get from these platforms, but mostly most of my guests right now come from Podmatch, because that's where I focus my time. So I hope this episode helps you to formulate a plan of action if you've decided you want to go the guest route, or even if you just want an occasional guest to you know, deepen your podcast influence. I hope this helps you to decide and make a plan of action for having guests on your show. Thank you for listening. Got questions about podcasting? Do you find yourself struggling with the tools and strategies that you know will help you launch and grow your show? Why not join the newest podcastist club where you can get your questions answered by me or one of our guest experts? 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