This is the show for creative entrepreneurs who have a message to share and want to live a life of freedom. Learn how to grow your network and net worth. Hear from exciting guests and more. My name is Dylan Schmidt and welcome to Digital Podcaster. All right. Today, I wanna talk about getting guests for your podcast. So it's a common misconception that you need to pay a bunch of money or use some type of service to get guests for your podcast. It's easier than you think. And I'll break it down in this episode and not make it some complicated process. My goal with a lot of this Podcasting stuff is to make it as simple as possible. And in order to do that, we have to create simple systems, right? You can't. you can't manage your own podcasts, even if you're the host. If there is just so much going on, if it's a complex system, it's just gonna be hard to upkeep. Cause we all have lives outside of our podcast. And anytime you add in something new to your podcast, it makes it harder and harder to manage. So let's talk about guests for your podcast. Not every podcast has guests. I understand that. then that wouldn't really be serving you if we talked about why you wouldn't have guests on your podcast. So we're not gonna go there. But, um, if you do have guests for your podcast, I think one of the easiest ways to get guests. Well not, I think I know one of the easiest ways is to reach out to your community. If you're just starting your podcast, the simplest way is to talk to the people that are closest to you. Oftentimes there are great guests or great conversations waiting to be had. We just, maybe don't always see those opportunities. Um, so when you're evaluating, who would make a great guest for your podcast, I think it's a good idea to have some level of expectation or some level of standard on who you would have in, but oftentimes that doesn't look like that they have a big follower count or that they have. You know, some type of big platform that you're gonna use them to level up your podcast that could very quickly lead to having a guest that's out of integrity who you'd want a future feature you on your podcast. So. um, what you could do is just kind of make a list, open up something like Google sheets and just list out all possible ideas. People that are, you know, in the first column, you could list out people who are, I mean, in your immediate network, like you could DM or text message them right now. And then in the second column, people who are in like the. Uh, layer over, right? Like maybe they're a friend of a friend, um, or, you know, there's someone that you could ask someone to introduce you to. They're not, you know, someone, you know, already, but they're, they're one, one level away. And then the next thing after that would just be your dream guests. And oftentimes with the dream guests, you want to go as big. Uh, it's small and big, but it doesn't, I wouldn't evaluate it by follower count again, or audience size or anything like that. I would go by how great of a conversation you think you would have with these guests on your podcast. So, um, you know, you go by, like, if you come across their content already and they don't have to have a podcast for you to have them on your podcast. But if you come across their content on social media, for example, and you see like, wow, this person just P posts, things that stand out in some way, and you, you see a different angle with the content they're already making, even if it's short form content on something like TikTok or Twitter or something like that, that will go a long ways into conversation because you can then easily ask them on your podcast, you know, questions about the content that they're making. Um, and that's what, that's what I like to do. But if you choose somebody that you don't really kind of know the angle on, like what you would wanna talk to them about, you're gonna find the conversation be boring and that's not gonna translate well to the listener. And that's not ideal. That's not gonna help you grow your podcast. That's not gonna help anybody. That's just a waste of time. And then when you actually have the guest on your podcast, you'll find that, um, oftentimes you only need about like two or three questions to really get things going. If you come in over prepared, uh, as a guest that appears on podcast, if someone comes in or if I cover on a podcast and someone's like, you know, I, I got like all these questions to kind of run through. I feel kind of pressured. And I feel like I can't really answer each question because I'm getting, I'm getting hammered with questions and it's just like onto the next one onto the next one. So I, I think three to. You know, questions or even backup questions. If you feel like you wanna have the conversation be more natural is the smartest way to approach it. Um, not over preparing and not under preparing, coming in with a little bit. Um, and then, yeah. And that's it. So when you're getting guests for your podcast, how do you do it? Simplest way is to just simply reach out, right? So if you have your list, if you made a list of people, you know, in your direct, uh, network, and then the one that's like the next level of network and then the dream. all of those you could treat in one way or the other the same. It's just, who are you contacting and how do you contact them? Well, a lot of podcasts booking agencies will book guests for like, or pitch pitch to potential guests on your behalf, either for you to appear on their Podcaster for you to appear on the person's podcast. And more people are trying to get on podcasts than. There are, uh, people trying to get you on their podcast. Right. Everyone wants to be on a platform cuz they see that as the networking tool, but not as many people are like, yeah, I wanna have guests on. And that's why I, I don't want you to come from this place of, um, of abundance, of like, you know, you set the standards, you set the expectations because if you're not picky, you'll have a bunch of guests on your podcast that are just. It, doesn't not saying they're good or bad or anything, they just don't offer anything to you and your audience. So it's important to note that, um, and then the easiest place to reach out is just straight through the platform that you see that they're active on. For some people that you reach out that might be a text message. If you have their phone number, uh, the second person, uh, the second way might be through like Instagram. If you know this person's active on Instagram, DM them on Instagram, don't try and force an. Uh, if you know, they're active on Twitter, send 'em a Twitter message, right. Go where you see that they're active and focus on that rather than trying to force it through only email or something like that. So the way I approach it is you DM them on say social media, like Twitter, Instagram, uh, TikTok messaging is really funky. I don't recommend it. Um, Facebook possibly, but Instagram and Twitter are probably one of the main sources. It seems like people are on, um, but you message them there. And then the goal is to just get a simple yes. And not give them some long pitch, but customize it to them and show them and tell them why you're asking them to come on your podcast, but don't make it about you make it about your guest and your audience. So let them know what the value would be for. It's almost. You wanna make it, if your audience, if they didn't come on your podcast, you they're doing it. Your audience a disservice, and you don't like explicitly say that you don't wanna guilt trip them. I'm just saying like, if I was asking you to come on my podcast and I'm like, uh, I think you would be great at sharing with my audience about these things. My audience struggles with this. And I think you would really add value in this way. So it's like, there's this, you're creating this open container for your guests to. And it's just a natural fit and all you want them to do is say, yes, here's the email to book. Uh, people with bigger platforms usually have an assistant, a virtual assistant, something like that. Um, so, you know, they might not always be doing the scheduling. So on that first message, you wanna present the problem in a way like, Hey, I've got a podcast about this and people have this issue and then you wanna present the opportunity. I would love to have you come on and speak briefly. It'll be video and audio on zoom or Riverside or whatever you use. And then, um, what email, if, if that sounds good to you, what email should I send more information in a time to schedule the podcast with? So after that first message, you wanna move to email because, uh, email is more official. It's not gonna get lost on the second thing. Sometimes when you start DM. Uh, I found on the second and third messages, that's when things start to get, uh, a little slippery, cause you don't wanna get lost in because email's just more official. That's where things like scheduling happens, right. It's hard to schedule something from DMS. It's actually really annoying too, because, um, you know, you can't just like hit your Google calendar and things like that. So that's why I suggest. The goal is to get a yes. And then their email, uh, again, because if they have an assistant or they have someone that's helping them book things, you want to reach out to that person. Um, and then when you reach out to that person on the email, which is now we're on the second message is in the email. You simply, uh, again, just say, Hey, this is who I am. Here's a link to book. Um, or I would say, Hey, here, here I am. Uh, I'm following up from my message on wherever Twitter, Instagram, wherever you first DMed. And they said, yes, uh, here's a link to book, make it really easy at the top. And then the rest of the message is kind of again, but a little bit more in depth. Um, this is my podcast. This is why I think you're a great fit. And here's a couple example questions I'd love to chat with you. Can't wait, let me know. Or like, let me know if you have any questions, but I'm excited to chat, um, talk soon. So again, the goal of that one is just for them. Book of time using ly really simple, nothing magical or, uh, anything there. So that's kind of it like in two messages you could get the guest booked, um, and you don't have to spend a lot of time, right? Like you're reaching out on social media, you've got a list of people to follow up with you. Um, you've got like a way to do it. And when you're suggesting the time in the email use an app like Calendly or some type of appointment setting thing like that. Uh, if you just start spitting out times, like here's three options that gets hard, like that gets annoying. So just make it easy on yourself, make it easy on your guest to find a time and just do that by giving them a link. Um, I do have a script, uh, for this that you can copy it's inside Podcasting Academy, Podcasting Academy dot com. If you are interested in just copying and pasting something that works for you, it's like fill in the blank. Um, That's the formula of getting great guests on your podcast. I've used that many times and you know, you can do this without even having launched your podcast because, uh, all you gotta do is change the beginning of the first message. So when you're saying, um, you know, this is my podcast, you kind of, you don't hide it in, you're not trying to bait and switch, but you it's. It's like you act as if, like, if you're coming from a place of confide. Your podcast is gonna be, you're gonna be doing it for a while, right? So it's, if you haven't launched yet, I just want you to know, add in there, like this podcast is launching around whatever date, you know, this podcast is launching in March of 2023. Um, but that's side note, right? Because you don't wanna make the focus on when you're launching or anything like that. That's not important to your guest. What's important to your guest is, you know, um, adding value to your audience and that's kind of it cause podcasts live a while, right. So there's no reason to feel insecure about not launching yet. Um, but you do wanna make that explicit, not like this weird. Oh yeah, we're launching. So you just say that in there, like, um, that's in there too. So I hope that helped. Um, I know that there is a lot of people out there that charge for booking guests, which I get, you know, if you have the budget. They're not cheap. You know, some of 'em cost anywhere from a couple thousand dollars. There's Facebook groups out there that are free. Um, but you'll find like that's where you need to be extra picky on guests and even up appearing on podcasts sometimes. Um, for the most part, you don't have to be as picky, but if you're going on free Facebook groups and you put up a post looking for guests, you've gotta be picky, like guard your audience, guard your topic, guard your brand. And don't just have anybody on, you know, you gotta do a little bit of research on like who this person is. If you know, they said something that is not like, if you had them on your podcast and it's not something that like you even remotely wanna be associated with, then, you know, don't have them on. Um, there's no reason to there's enough fish in the sea so, yeah, I hope that helps. Uh, let me know if you have any questions and I will talk to you soon. Oh yeah. And check out Podcasting Academy. You want a done for you? Script that you just fill in the blank. All right, I'll see you next time.