50. Grow Your Podcast Audience With Guests

In this episode, I'm giving up the goods for one of my absolute favorite strategies for podcast growth: guest appearances. Whether you're just starting out or you're an established podcaster, guests are a powerful way to cross-pollinate and expand your reach. I’m spilling all the tea on how to find the right guests, how to pitch them, and why it’s crucial to maintain a meaningful connection long after the episode drops.

In This Episode:

• Why Guest Appearances Matter: Learn how guest spots can help you grow your audience and create networking opportunities, no matter the size of your show.
• Cross-Pollinating Your Niche: How to find guests who complement your niche and can expose you to new listeners without feeling like competition.
• The Importance of Authenticity: Don’t just invite people for their follower count—make sure you’re genuinely excited about the conversation.
• How to Pitch and Prepare for Guests: Practical tips on building relationships, vetting potential guests, and setting boundaries to ensure your show maintains its integrity.
• Creating Shareable Assets: Why sharing your episode with your guest (and vice versa!) is crucial for growing both audiences.
• Tracking Analytics: How to use episode analytics to measure the success of guest spots and decide whether to bring guests back.

Key Takeaways:

• Guest appearances are one of the easiest ways to grow your show, but the key is being intentional about who you invite and why.
• Establishing genuine relationships with your guests creates long-lasting collaboration opportunities.
• Sharing episode assets and encouraging guests to promote their appearance can lead to higher visibility and more downloads.

Connect with Rue:

• Instagram: @SoniviaStudios
• Email: rue.sonivia@gmail.com for any podcasting questions or to set up a consultation.

Free Consultation:

Curious about how guest appearances can fit into your podcasting strategy? Book a free session with me to chat about it. 

Did this episode light you up? Subscribe and leave a review to help other podcasters find it! 

Music Credit: Up An Octave Theme by Rue Spence with additional vocals provided by Darnell Spence

Up An Octave is hosted by Rue Spence of Sonivia. Up An Octave is a podcast for women and nonbinary people who are ready to take up space in podcasting to share their voices with the world.

Transcript

  You're listening to Up an Octave, a podcast by Sonivia, the podcasting agency that believes that women and non binary people deserve to take up space in the podcasting industry. Because our thoughts, voices, and stories matter. Here, you'll learn how to make dope podcasts that inspire, educate, convert, and most importantly, make your voice shine.

I'm your host, Rue Spence, and I'm here to take podcasting up an octave. Let's get into it. 

Welcome back to Up an Octave. Today we are talking about leveraging guest appearances to grow your podcast. This is one of my favorite strategies. If you have worked with me one on one, you already know this. But I'm not gatekeeping, so I want to give this information to everyone because it is such a powerful tool in your podcasting toolbox.

So let's dive on in. So podcast guest experiences are maybe the easiest and most fabulous way to cross pollinate your niche. This is especially true if you can find someone who is  in your niche, but doing adjacent work. So, you know, if you are within the fitness space, if you are a personal trainer, finding someone who specializes with helping people who have suffered an injury, you know, something that's like very tight in to what you're doing.

that it doesn't ever feel like competition, but that it still feels synergistic. And it makes sense to be having that conversation. The other part of cross pollinating is that it works at any level. So whether you're just starting your show out, or, you know, you have TOK, you're going to be able to benefit from this strategy in a couple of different ways.

The first is that people like to talk and it's a great opportunity for people to get really comfortable sharing, for people to get really comfortable sharing their own story. Sometimes, even if we're really good at what we're doing and we have a thriving seven figure business. It's still not comfortable to talk.

I recently edited an episode for a client and she had a huge guest who she was kind of shaken in her boots to be interviewing. And something that I get to hear, you know, behind the scenes with editing is that Is this person who she had, who's got  50, 000 plus followers on Instagram, is like, this is my first ever podcast, I'm really nervous.

So it was a mutual gift for both of them, because obviously when this person put it out on her social media that she had done this podcast, that's 50, 000 new eyes potentially on this show. But also it was a chance for her to play in a new space and talk about her business and her work differently. It's also just plainly networking.

It's putting yourself out there. It's expanding your network, your community, which is such a powerful thing in the entrepreneur space or even just in like the fandom podcast space as well. So never think that you're too small or that the guest is too big for there to be value. As long as you're coming at this earnest and you really believe that the conversation would be beneficial to your community, you can't go wrong.

You know, like there's, as long as your heart is good and pure, there's nothing wrong with that.  It's going to be fruitful and it's going to be of value. Now, if you're just like, Oh, this person's got a million followers. Like, obviously I want to have them on so that I get a million eyes and it's pretty pub for me.

That's BS. It's going to set off their BS meters and it's just not going to feel authentic. So definitely lead with authenticity. Only pitch to people who feel exciting and that like literally light you up to think about talking to and having on your show. Guest appearances also are incredibly valuable because they kind of show whose space you're hanging out in. 

And, you know, I'm a KC girl, and we, of course, now have Taylor Swift at all the Chiefs games, and it's been really interesting to me to watch the other, quote, football lives or football girlfriends social media change. as Taylor has started to become a part of that community. So it's been interesting to see what changes are being made on these posts, what choices are being made in fashion, whose necklace I'm seeing on who a week later.

Those kinds of things have been really interesting because it's just like, huh, okay, so you are spending time together. And that same kind of phenomenon can happen within whatever your niche is. And that's what podcast guest opportunities can also do for you. It's like, Oh, well, I admire this person. And I didn't know that this person was hanging out with that person.

So maybe I would like that person too. And so you kind of start to form this little in crowd, this little pocket of like minded people, creators, whatever your thing is, that just show that social proof of like, hey, I'm in the same pod, not to, like, pod pun. But you know, I'm spending this time with these other people and we're sharing these ideas and we are kind of within the same little group.

And that's helpful, especially if you are newer,  if you can find a bigger creator who is willing to be gracious enough to share some of their time and energy with you. And also, you know, if hopefully the person you're connecting with is level headed and kind, there's not going to be that like me versus you or that competition or anything.

It's going to be, you know, there are people who have so much magic to share that have no eyes on them. And, you know, it's sometimes it's just about finding the way that that lightning can strike to actually get that connection made. And so if you can find someone who's a little bit bigger to come onto your show, they may realize that they have a lot to learn from you as well.

And then furthermore, having that network start to bloom is going to connect you with even more people because that person is going to go, Oh, hey, I actually know this person. We've worked together for years. She's great. She should come on and then she's pitching that person to you and then that person's pitching you to someone else.

And so starting your network that way is also just going to kind of ingratiate you into circles that don't even know you exist yet. So that's nice and all how,  how do you pitch? How do you prepare? Sure. Let's get into all of that. So finding the right person is important and chances are you are spending time within this niche.

You know, you know, people that you admire, you're like, okay, you know, I'm, I'm interested in, Doing a book podcast. Who's my favorite author? Who's like my dream person. And this is where the witchy woo woo is going to come in a little bit. And I say, you know, put that on a vision board. Maybe it's not accessible for you.

To interview Stephen King. Maybe it's not, but maybe it is, you know, keep that as like an ultimate goal. There are some podcasters that I have who are like my dream interviews. And I'm not putting it out there yet, but I'm not not putting it out there that it's a dream. How cool would that be? So kind of idealize who you would love to talk to and then sort of work down from there, you know?

So it's like, okay, if that's like my ultimate dream person, how could I start to make connections that get me into that direction? And start forming those relationships. Somewhere that I really like to start these conversations is on threads. I've talked about threads in some of my previous episodes. We all know that I have been a long time Instagram girly, and threads is just a really fun place to hang out.

So I recommend hanging out in threads and just putting out like an APB. Be like, hey, I'm I want to do an episode about this. Where are all of my girlies who have a book coming out in 2025? Where are all of my fitness journey girlies. Where are all of my mom business owner girlies? Like, put out what you're looking for and see who comes back to you.

This is also where I kind of sidebar to say that you're gonna have to get comfortable with boundaries. Oh, I said it. I said it. I said it. I said it. Okay, so what I mean here is that chances are you're going to get a lot of people who are like, yeah, no, I do that, vet them. And if they are truly not a good fit for you or your audience, lovingly say, you are not a good fit for me and my audience.

It doesn't have to be like. a ghost situation. It doesn't have to be like, you know, like it can just be, Hey, this is not really what I'm catering towards. Thank you so much for your interest. You can still follow each other and be like, but I would love to read your book or I'd love to hear more about that.

I just know it's not going to be the best use of your time or my time for you to come on my show. It can totally be a loving interaction, but I see so many times New podcasters shooting small and maybe finding people who are not a good fit. And sometimes this isn't even that, like, the personality isn't a good fit, but the circumstance is not a good fit.

And what I mean by that is someone shows up to the recording with, like, their dog that will just not, like, settle down. Or they don't have headphones to record with, or they don't have a microphone to record with. And it's just not going to put your show in the best light. So that's somewhere that I would be kind of reticent to just accept everyone.

I'm a really big fan of building up a connection first before you're just like, okay, yeah, cool. Come on. You can be on my podcast on Tuesday. That if you start to formulate that relationship, be like, cool, tell me more about what you do. Let's hang out in our DMs for a little bit. See what your rapport with that person is like.

Are you going to be able to have a good conversation with them or are they kind of like boring? Like, do you want to talk to that person? Is what they're doing exciting to you? And if the answer is like, I mean, they're fine, then okay, they're fine.  And I say that as someone who has had conversations with people who have been just fine.

Sometimes you're not even going to know until you're there, you're like, I think this is going to be awesome. And then they get on the mic and you're just like,  it was a thing. So vet people and get comfortable really putting up boundaries and protecting your show. If you can start to see your show as.

not you. I think that's also helpful. Like, I see my show as like my baby, right? I'm like, I'm very protective of my podcast. I'm very protective of the work that I do. And so it's like the same as like my kid, right? Where I'm like, oh, I'll let you walk all over me, but like, don't you dare hurt my kid. And so if you can kind of see your podcast as like, Oh, I'm not being mean.

I'm just protecting my show's integrity. That can be a baby step to help you get more comfortable while you're doing the work to set those boundaries for yourself too. Not to be your therapist or anything, but that one's on the house. So once you have started having these conversations and you realize that this person really is a good fit for your show and you're excited to talk to them.

Let's talk about actually preparing for the day of recording. You have to know what your guest is doing. Done. Point blank. Period. You have to know who your guest is as a person. Like if you only know what's in their Instagram bio and you're like, come on my show, it's going to sound so phony and they're going to read that energy.

And it's honestly  so disrespectful. I have heard so many interviews that go that way, and it's just cringy every time, where it's like, So tell me about your thing. And it's like, girl, what? Like, you should be in this, like, super fan energy when someone comes on your podcast. You should be gassing them up.

You should be ready to give a comprehensive introduction. You have to do your homework and that's somewhere I've talked about it on my episode about what structure of show should you follow. That is part of why having guests on your show can be difficult because it does, it takes time to identify the guest, source them, communicate with them, book them, record with them, all of those things.

But so much of what goes into the prep work of a guest interview is the homework, listening to their podcast, diving deep on their YouTube channel, scrolling their Instagram page and seeing what their work looks like, getting to know them so that you can ask intelligent questions. Because while we love talking about ourselves, if it's just giving you a bio, like that's not what excites me.

Like telling people like, hi, I'm Rue and I help people with podcasts. That's an elevator pitch. That's not a conversation. A conversation is I'm so passionate about this work, because when I started my first show, this work didn't exist. I struggled to find what I needed. So if you're just asking me like, so tell me what you do, the what is never going to make for a good conversation.

It's always going to be the why the how those deeper, more juicy questions are going to be what the podcast conversation is. So if you don't have the time or energy to figure out the what, Bestie, it's not worth having a conversation with that person. And honestly, it kind of shows. that that person's not worth it to you.

And I don't say that in a bad way, but it just, it's not a right fit that, you know, that person, you should be excited to listen to their show. You should be excited to dive deep on their YouTube page. You should be excited to learn everything you can about them, to read the book that they have just put out that you're going to interview them about.

Like you should be jazzed. That this person is sharing their energy with you. And if you're not, respectfully just tell them, you know what? I don't think this is a great fit. Thank you so much for your time.  Now, where do I stand on giving people interview questions like via email? Like, these are going to be the questions I ask. 

Not a big fan. And the reason that I'm not a big fan is because it leads to things feeling rehearsed, it leads to answers feeling canned, which doesn't give you, like, that really kinda juicy call her daddy vibe. Which I think is what so many people as consumers come to podcasts for, that they don't want things that feel really stagnant.

They want things that feel kind of off the cuff. But I do think that we have a responsibility as creators to give a heads up to the people that we're going to be chatting about, especially if there's anything to do with any kind of trauma. Or hardship, that absolutely not blindsiding someone with questions in an interview.

That is just garbo journalism, in my opinion, that if you are going to have like a shock value or something that, you know, Oh, this, this question, I'll get them for sure. Put them in the hot seat. It's a podcast, bro. Like chill out,  chill out. And so I do ahead of time like to be like, Hey, do you have any conversational no fly zones or is there anything that you're not comfortable chatting about within this experience or.

What is your comfort level in talking about this thing? And that is especially important if you are speaking to someone who is in a marginalized community or a background different to your own. Because things that may just feel like, oh, that's interesting to you, It may be something that is personal to them, something that may be inappropriate for them, like to them to have a conversation about, or it may be asking of them to do emotional labor.

That is your responsibility. So unless it's cleared ahead of time, having the respect and integrity to not. And also another thing with, within that is I think, try and be more creative, right? Uh, that's something that I saw a lot, like in 2020, in the wake of George Floyd's murder, that there were a lot of conversations happening on podcasts of people who are not black, trying to become educated, having conversations with black people, but also with other people from different backgrounds.

And a lot of it felt like, why didn't you Google this ahead of time? Like there are so many valuable things that could have come from that conversation that didn't because it was too just like, what's it like to be Black,  which is not helpful and can also be triggering and detrimental when that person's like, cool, I have like a PhD.

And there are things that I want to talk about that are deeper than just the surface level.  Or something that we see with trans people or non binary people is like the, so let's talk about like your surgery status. That's not your freaking business. Unless the episode title as cleared by the person you're interviewing is my surgery experience.

That's not a conversation you need to be having. If you are having someone on to talk about their decision to have top surgery, then it's, you need to do the work to be like, cool. So what within that are you comfortable talking about? But you should never just have a person on your show and be like, cool.

So like, what's going on in your pants right now? Cause that's just weird. You should know that's just weird in any conversation, but it's especially weird on a podcast. Anyways, that's Diablo Soapboxy, but it's all important, and it's all things that come up and things that I have seen, and that's what having a platform is all about, so, ta da! 

So you've done your homework, you have this amazing conversation with this person, things are great, you say, okay, thank you so much, bye. And you hang up the Riverside or Zuncast or whatever. Now what? So the now what is, you edit or you send it off to your editor or whatever, you've got this great episode.

You can choose to send it to them ahead of time and just be like, Hey, let me know if there's anything that, you know, you're not comfortable with how you set it that you would like for me to take out. That can be especially helpful if it's like a really trauma heavy episode. You know, they're talking about like a domestic violence situation or something like that, just to make sure that they have.

some agency and some power in that situation. It's not something that I always do. It's not something that I think always needs to be done. So yeah, when in doubt, send it out, let them listen, let them kind of be like, yeah, I'm cool with it. Or like, no, I wish this had come out. And then the next step. Is you create your social media assets, whatever that looks like for you.

If you're Facebook, whatever, whatever, whatever.  Share those assets with them.  That is how you capitalize. That is how you cross pollinate. Because them just doing the episode and then nothing coming of it? Oh, okay. Like, I have been on podcasts that I have forgotten I've been on. Because I do them and then I radio silence from the host.

I never hear from them again. And that's kind of a bummer to me because, like I said, I try and do so much, like, work on the front end. that's cultivating a relationship that it sometimes feels a little squidgy to me when I'm just like, Oh, okay. Like this was just content for you. And it's kind of a not so great feeling to just feel like content.

And so I try to make sure that I never give someone that feeling when they're a guest on my show. But it's also something that I'm really passionate about helping my clients and the people that I'm working with. To not accidentally cultivate that feeling in someone else. And, and this is not me saying, oh, I think that this person had malice and was like, I'm just going to use RU for content.

She's gonna come on and talk about podcasting or motherhood or whatever, and I'm gonna throw her to the curb. That's not at all what I'm saying. What I'm saying though is that there are so many moving parts with having a podcast that it's very easy to drop balls. And especially if you're batching and you're doing four interviews in a day, like that's a lot and it's hard to remember everything that's happened.

But you know, having that little bit of a relationship and sharing, putting things out to that person, keeping them involved in the creative process, I think is just honestly the nice thing to do, the kind thing to do. But also pollinating magic happens. on release day, share the assets, be like, Hey, here's the link to listen.

It was so wonderful getting to talk to you. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your magic. I'd love it if you would share the episode with your community. Can I add you as a collaborator on Instagram for these posts, et cetera, et cetera. Tag them in your stories. Ask them to share, like, Continue that relationship and remember, you know, because I know it can sometimes feel squidgy if you're like, Oh, like they already came on and gave me an hour of their time.

I don't want to like, Ooh, I don't want to do more. Remember that this is free advertising for them, right? Like this is a free billboard. That you have made, the least that they can do is tap three buttons, right? Download, upload, share, done. Not that hard at all.  It's kind of, honestly, if you've done it right and with the correct intentions, you're giving them a gift just as much as anything else. 

Share it with them. That's, that's the step that I see. Forgotten so often is I'll edit an episode for a client and I'm like, cool, here's social media assets. Here's the episode. It goes live. And then I'm like, Hey, it's been crickets from that person. Like why aren't they sharing? It's like, Oh, cause I forgot to tell them their episode was up.

So just make it a thing and just know that that's part of your system. And at the end of their episode to something else is make sure that you're deploying a strong call to action. So chances are if. People who are in that guests orbit, if they're finding the episode on social media, they're tapping the link in the Instagram story, they're listening to it on Spotify.

They have no clue who you are. So it's, it's not just that like, Oh, I don't want to be repetitive to my audience. When you have a guest episode, treat it almost like it's the first episode you've ever put out, because to a lot of people, that's going to be their foot in the door for you. So at the end of the guest's episode, always leave time for them to plug, be like, great.

And you know, where can, you My audience find you because that's where the cross pollinating is, right? So where can my audience find you? How can my audience work with you? They give their spiel, whatever. And then because you're talking to their audience as well, for the first time, you say, great, Susie, thank you so much for coming on up an octave.

It's been so wonderful talking to you. Uh, for anyone new out there, make sure you're following up an octave. You can follow me on Instagram, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever your spiel is. There should be both spiels at the end because you're both talking to brand new people. And then just finally, because this one's gotten a little long, tracking analytics on guest episodes can kind of help you see what's working and what's not and what you'd like to do in the future.

And this is especially where I think building that relationship is so important because if you can see, wow, Um, having Susie really blew up my show, have Susie on again. It's that simple. And that's somewhere that really having that sense of community and building those relationships can be wonderful. I, I saw this a lot on thoughts from a page with Cindy Burnett.

She has a incredibly thriving podcast. It's like, I think top 1 percent at this point. Yeah. Yeah. She's killing it, but she has a friend within the book community, Kelly Hooker, who's a book Instagram, bookstagram girly. And they do episodes together now monthly. And that's been a great way for both of their audiences to thrive.

They've got products together. They're killing the game together. But that having that kind of back and forth is then consistent content for both of their audiences and it helps to grow both of those communities. So it's just win, win, win all around. So make sure you're still keeping and maintaining those relationships, especially if you liked having that guest on, if you thought it was a good conversation.

And then if you see that it also really resonated with your audience, bring them back. I'm not saying it has to be monthly. Maybe once a quarter once every six months be like, Hey, special guest Susie's coming back. You loved her last time You're gonna love her this time So, you know, that's the one place where like analytics can be so so so helpful is just seeing what's working And and also you can kind of identify Oh that person like really hustled me on social media like they were promoting on all of their channels I just you know went on Rue's show.

It was great  And you can see kind of what types of assets that they're sharing really helped. And that can help you further tunnel in on your own social media strategy.  That was a long one. That's it for today. Uh, get out there, get brave, pitch yourself, pitch your show and go make something awesome. Go meet some awesome people, make some magic happen.

You can come hang out with me on Instagram at Sonevia Studios. You can grab your free session with me. There's more info in my show notes as always. You can shoot me an email at ru. sonevia at gmail. com if you have any questions at all. And you can keep being awesome. Thank you so much for helping me take podcasting up an octave.