What makes one guest truly unique from other podcast guests? From other writers, performers, teachers, coaches, or other experts? YOU and your best podcast topics!
What makes you unique is your personal story. Be mindful about telling a personal story for a podcast or webinar. It’s not rambling on about things that are personal to you. It’s not oversharing. It’s not venting.
You need to tell a story that your perfect listener relates to 100%!
You need to tell a story that incites curiosity and makes your listener wonder why you do what you do. So naturally, explaining why you do what you do is a key component of your compelling story. If that ‘why’ makes an emotional connection with your listener, you’ve hit your mark.
For example, if a listener is just getting over the shock of losing a leg in an accident and is ready to deal with it, she is far more likely to tune into a podcast that deals with “Running with One Leg” than one on “Muscle Car Restoration”.
If you have the best podcast topics, add a promise during that podcast, you won’t just interest her. You’ll hook her and reel her in. Give your host a hook they can use to promote you, and you increase your chances of people tuning into that episode even more.
The easiest way to create a powerful hook is in a title.
It doesn’t matter if the host is already calling the episode something else—YOU must give her the plan of how to interview you, and you do this with a speaker sheet—we’ll get to those shortly.
Here is an example of a hook guaranteed to be of interest to female entrepreneurs.
Felena Hanson was a successful twenty-two-year-old looking forward to a high-powered career when she suffered a catastrophic car accident. In her story, however, Felena doesn’t focus on the agonizing details of her recovery, but on what being forced to re-examine her life sparked. That led to the creation of Hera Hub, a shared physical workspace for female entrepreneurs where they could go to network, brainstorm, and create a community focused on helping each other succeed.
In effect, the promise she inherently makes—right in the title of the episode, “Turning Setbacks into Triumphs”—is that you can rise like a phoenix out of the ashes of your life and claim your power even more potently than you may have previously thought possible.
Use this as one of your best podcast topics and promise the podcast host a focused interview like this, and hosts will be falling all over themselves to book you.
The other element Felena Hanson makes use of is a theme that connects. In this case, triumph out of tragedy.
She keeps it raw and speaks from a deeply personal perspective, but it is a perspective that touches the emotions, fears, and dreams of her audience.
If you make a focused promise in your proposed episode title or story logline (your “hook” sentence), you will attract people who desperately need and want the information you have. Often information they may not even know they are seeking.
Another big positive, for both you and your host, are that you can package your proposed guest appearance in a format that fits your host and her audience. You can totally customize your best podcast topics while using the same core hook, promise, tips, and examples.
For example, if you were appearing on a mental health show, reaching people struggling to make a living while coping with illnesses and conditions such as depression, PTSD, or bipolar disorder, you might want to focus on your story and how you overcame barriers.
If, on the other hand, you wanted to guest on a technique-based business show, you might re-package that basic central message as “21 Tips for Working When You Don’t Feel Like Working”.
So before approaching an already-established podcast host, get to know your host and her audience and set your best podcast topics.
This is one of seven steps you can use to get booked on the best podcasts. If you’ve never been on a podcast, but always wanted to, you don’t want to miss out on this month’s EBA Profit Planner called “Book Yourself on Hot Podcasts.”
Melanie M Davis and her team have been producing Profit Planners exclusively for a client for over 3 years. But now they are available to you!
Profit Planners are simple systems that will benefit many businesses.
You will receive the following in the package:
- A Textbook
- Digital Workbook
- Calendar with tasks you work on daily
- Idea Generator to brainstorm about podcasts
- A complete checklist to make sure you don’t miss a step
- Confidence to pull off seeking a guest spot on hot podcasts
