How to Use Podcast Guest Interviews to Build Business Relationships

“There is no better networking tool than a podcast. Nothing even comes close.”

I talk about one of the most overlooked ways to use a podcast: not just to educate an audience, but to build real business relationships with people you actually want to work with. Guest interviews are not about chasing big names or collecting LinkedIn screenshots. They are about creating value, having meaningful conversations, and turning a 30-minute interview into a genuine professional connection. 

I think this is one of the most important episodes for anyone using a podcast to grow a business. Too many podcasters think guest interviews are just content. But when you choose the right guests, prepare properly, ask better questions, and follow up like a real human, the interview becomes much more powerful than a networking email or a cold pitch.

5 key takeaways

1. Guest interviews are a business development tool
2. A podcast invitation changes the dynamic
3. Great interviews build trust faster
4. Choose guests strategically
5.  The follow-up is where the real relationship starts

Chapters

• 00:00 | Why guest interviews are hiding in plain sight
• 03:00 | Why podcast interviews build trust so quickly
• 08:00 | The three types of guests to invite
• 15:00 | How to structure the interview for real connection
• 20:00 | The follow-up that turns interviews into relationships
  
  

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:48

A great podcast conversation compresses months of relationship building into 30 minutes. You've heard each other's stories, you've shared real perspectives, you've had a genuine exchange. By the time you stop recording, you know each other. You're giving them a platform to share their story. You're making them look great. And by the end of the conversation, they've spent 30 minutes watching you demonstrate deep expertise in the exact area that they need help with. You never pitched once, but they know exactly what to do. One of the most underused business developed strategies I know of is hiding in plain sight inside a podcast format that most people think of as purely educational. I'm talking about guest interviews. But not in the way you're probably thinking right now. I'm not talking about landing impressive names so you can screenshot the episode and post it on LinkedIn. That's what most podcasters focus on. Oh, I got this big name on my show. Great. Did it actually lead to anything? Did it move your business forward even a tiny bit? What I want to talk about today is something much more intentional, much more strategic, how to deliberately invite people you want to build a business relationship with, create genuine value for them during the conversation, and turn a 30-minute recording into a lasting professional connection. Because after hundreds and hundreds of interviews, I can tell you with absolute certainty there is no better networking tool than a podcast. Nothing even comes close. And the research backs this up. According to a study from Lore Street in 2024, 83% of senior executives listen to podcasts weekly. These are the decision makers. These are the people you want to reach and they're already listening. So let me explain why this works so well. Because on the surface, it seems too simple, right? You invite someone on your podcast, you chat for half an hour. How does that turn into a business relationship? Here's the first thing. A podcast invitation is a form of flattery that doesn't really feel like flattery. When you invite someone to be a guest, you're basically saying, I think your expertise is valuable enough that my audience should hear from you. That's not a sales pitch. That's not you asking for something, you're giving them something. A platform, exposure, a piece of content they can share with their own audience. That completely flips the dynamic from the very first interaction. Second thing, during the interview, you're naturally positioned as the curious, prepared, knowledgeable host. The guest sees how you think, they see the quality of your questions, they experience your expertise firsthand without you ever having to say, Hey, I'm really good at this. They just feel it. And that's so much more powerful than any pitch or proposal you could ever write. And third, and this is a big one, a great podcast conversation compresses months of relationship building into 30 minutes. Think about how long it normally takes to build a real professional connection. Months of LinkedIn comments, a few coffee meetings, some back and forth emails. On a podcast, you skip all of that. You've heard each other's stories, you've shared real perspectives, you've had a genuine exchange. By the time you stop recording, you know each other. That changes everything. And there's the actual data behind why this medium builds trust faster. Edison research found that 45% of millennials and Gen Z trust brands promoted by podcast hosts. Specifically because of the relationship they feel with that host. That sense of intimacy, that feeling of really knowing someone through their voice and their face, it transfers directly to the guest relationship too. Alright, so if this is going to work as a business development tool, you obviously can't just invite random people. You need a strategy for who you bring on your show. And I break this down into three categories. But before I walk you through them, let me paint a picture so you can see exactly how this works in practice. Because abstract categories are useless without a concrete example. Imagine you're a leadership coach. You work with mid-level managers at tech companies, helping them transition into senior leadership roles. You've got a podcast called Something Like The Leadership Shift, where you talk about management, team dynamics, executive presence, that kind of thing. Your ideal client is someone at a company like Atlassian or Canva or Zero. They're a team lead or senior manager, and they've just been told, We think you're ready for a director role, but you really need to up your leadership. That's your person. Got it? Good. Now let's map the three guest categories to this specific host. Category one, dream clients. These are the people who fit your ideal client profile. For a leadership coach, that means inviting actual mid-level managers from tech companies onto the show. Not to pitch them, to interview them about their leadership challenges. Tell me about the hardest transition you've had, moving from individual contributor to people manager. You're giving them a platform to share their story. You're making them look great. And by the end of the conversation, they've spent 30 minutes watching you demonstrate deep expertise in the exact area that they need help with. You never pitched once, but they know exactly what to do, and when the time comes when they're staring down that promotion and feeling out of their depth, who do you think they're gonna call? Category two referral partners. These are the people who serve the same audience but don't compete with you. So for a leadership coach, think about who else works with mid-level tech managers, executive recruiters, career coaches who focus on personal branding rather than leadership skills, HR consultants who help companies build management training programs, maybe even therapists who specialize in workplace burnout. None of them compete with a leadership coach. All of them talk to the same people. When you build a genuine relationship with a recruiter who places senior managers, and that recruiter meets someone who says, I really need to work on my leadership skills before I'm ready for this role, guess whose name comes up? Yours. Because you had a brilliant conversation on your podcast six months ago and you stayed in touch. Category three, audience growers. These are the people whose audience overlaps with yours. Their credibility rubs off on your show, and when they share the episode, they're introducing you to exactly the right people. For a leadership coach, this might be a well-known author who's written a book on management, or a popular LinkedIn creator who posts about career growth in tech, or the host of another podcast in the professional development space. When someone with 50,000 LinkedIn followers shares your episode and says great conversation about the challenges of stepping into senior leadership, that's hundreds of your ideal listeners finding your show in one day. You can't buy that kind of targeted exposure. See how that works? Same three categories, but mapped to one specific person. Dream clients are the people you want to work with. Referral partners are the people who talk to the people you want to work with, and audience growers are the people who can put your show in front of the people that you want to work with. Now, here's the exercise, and I want you to actually do this, not just nod along. Think about your podcast, your ideal client, and make a list of 20 names, not impressive names for the sake of it, 20 people who genuinely fit one of these three categories for your specific business, six or seven dream clients, six or seven referral partners, and six or seven audience growers. That's your guest pipeline for the next six months. Now, once you've got someone on your show, how do you actually run the interview in a way that builds a real relationship and not just a piece of content that gets published and then forgotten? First and foremost, and most importantly, do your research. And I don't mean five minutes of Googling before you hit record, I mean real research. Listen to their podcast if they have one, read what they've written, look at their recent LinkedIn posts, understand what they care about right now, not six months ago. I always send guests a questionnaire beforehand with three specific things I want to explore. The reason I do this is twofold. One, it tells the guest I'm taking this seriously, I'm not winging it. Two, it gives me a structure so I'm not just asking generic questions like tell me about your journey. Nobody wants to answer that for the hundredth time. Ever. It's boring for them and it's boring for the listener and it's boring for you. Second, ask questions that let them shine. This is really, really important. The best interviews make the guests look extraordinary. When they leave thinking that was one of the best conversations I've had in ages, you've done it right. That feeling is what turns a one-time guest into a long-term connection. So go in with the mindset of how do I make this person as brilliant? How do I make this person sound as brilliant as they really are? Third, weave in your own perspective naturally, through follow-up questions, through observations, through building on what they've said. That's so interesting because I've seen the exact same pattern with dot dot dot. Don't lecture, participate. It's a conversation, not a presentation. And fourth, and this one is crucial, always end with what are you working on right now that you're most excited about? This seems like a simple question, but it's actually the most strategic question in the entire interview. Because whatever they answer, that becomes your entry point for continuing the relationship after the recording stops. The interview is just the beginning. The actual relationship building happens in the follow-up. And most podcasters completely drop the ball here. They publish the episode, maybe send a quick, hey, it's live message, and then that's a massive waste. Step one, when the episode is ready, send it to the guest with a personal note about something specific they said. Not a generic, hey, the episode is live. Just something short and simple, like that point you made about giving feedback to senior leaders has really struck with me. I've been thinking about it all week. Just simple, and that tells them that you are actually listening, that you valued the conversation. Step two, make it ridiculously easy for them to share. Send them the clip, the link, and some suggested social copy that they can use. Most guests want to share it, but let's be honest, they're too busy and they don't want to write a caption. Remove every bit of friction that you can. Step three, two weeks later, follow up about the project they mentioned at the end. Remember the what are you working on question? This is where it pays off. Hey, you mentioned you were building a new workshop for first-time managers. How's it going? That's not networking, that's just being a good human. And it builds a kind of relationship where business happens naturally. The goal is never to close a deal on the podcast, never. The goal is to build a genuine relationship. The business follows from that. Sometimes it might take six months, sometimes it happens in six days, sometimes in six minutes, but it happens consistently. And the data is pretty clear on this. Fame, a B2B podcast agency, reported in 2024. The companies using the guest to relationship model saw a 68% guest to sales pipeline conversion rate. 68%? That's not marketing fluff, that's a strategy that works. In the next episode, I'm going to give you the exact invite message that gets high value people to say yes. The formula, what to include, what to avoid, and a work the example you can copy and send today. So I'll see you in the next episode. This has been Smarter Podcasting. I'm Neil McKay, the podcast guy, and don't forget, follow and subscribe from wherever you listen to your podcasts. Cheers.