The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a World Class Podcast Host

TL;DR:

On the outside, hosting a podcast seems easy. You just have to come up with questions and ask the guest, right?

Well if you want to have a mediocre podcast, sure that’s enough. But if you want want to get the best insights out of your guests you have to do a lot more work. You have to do research on the guest, make the guest feel comfortable talking to you, ask deep questions that get them going, manage the flow of energy, be mindful of time, all while also add to the conversation yourself.

As Jordan Harbinger shares, “Your personality in a podcast or an interview is entertainment, but its also you as a creator. You’re co creating this podcast. If you don’t have any input, you’re commoditizing your product” (Branding Deep Dive Podcast Episode 60).

Becoming a world class podcaster takes work before, during, and after the interview. In this guide, we’ll walk you through best practices we learned from talking to Jordan Harbinger on how to become a world class podcast host.

As a podcaster you’re not just asking questions and letting the guest speak. Your guests may do 5 media appearances a week where they’re saying the same exact talking points, as a podcast host if you don’t add to the conversation your interview won’t be any different from the dozens of other interviews the guest has done.

One of the differences between journalists and podcasters is that with journalists the focus is the story or the guest. You don’t want to add too much personality because then people won’t trust the authenticity of the message. With podcasts on the other hand, the audience isn’t tuning in for the guests (with some exceptions if it’s a huge guest), they’re tuning in to you. They don’t want to just hear from the guest but they also want your perspective and your thoughts.

Now that doesn’t mean you don’t give the guest space to talk, what that does mean is that you need to add value to the conversation. The truly great hosts are able to ensure every moment in the podcast is providing value to the audience.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail for a podcast interview. Here are three things that will automatically put you in the 1% of podcasters in terms of preparation.

Read the book

If your guest as a book or content on the internet, take the time to actually read the book. Most interviewed don’t even do this basic step. Ive had numerous guests on the podcast that were actually shocked when I told them I read their book. They all had the same reaction, “really?! Most podcasts I go on the host hasn’t read the book!”

Reading the book or consuming the content they produce makes for a much more engaging discussion because you can go deeper into topics that they like to talk about. You can extract insights that other people won’t because if you haven’t read the book they’ll just be giving a surface level intro of the book in the interview.

Do some good old fashioned internet stalking

Check out their social media profiles. Search their name on google. See if there are any subreddits where the person is spoken about. See how they present themselves and what other people are saying about them online.

Find subtext

While you read the book and do some internet stalking, find angles and questions that aren’t being asked by others. Find what’s not being said and ask about those things. You do this by consuming the content actively, take notes and ask questions as you’re reading/listening.

When you’re recording the interview is game time. This is where all your preparation comes into play. Here are some best practices for conducting a stellar interview.

Build rapport before starting

Before hitting the record button take some time to introduce yourself and give the guest background on the podcast and who the listeners are. This will help them understand who they’re speaking to so they can cater their answers and give proper context when needed.

This will also make the guest feel more comfortable talking to you as starting our without any rapport built can be super awkward.

Manage the flow of energy

Certain guest can talk on and on and start to bore you (and by extension your audience). As the host it’s your job to not let them drag on endlessly.

And it gets even more nuanced. At times you’ll have to step in and share a story because the guest isn’t engaging enough. Some guest talk in a more monotone voice so you may have to add more to the discussion with more energy than you normally would. There almost sn infinite number of decisions you have to make, but at the end of the day you’re trying to create the best conversation possible.

You have to keep the audience in mind at all times. If you’re getting bored or something is going over your head, chances are your audience feels the same way. So instead of holding it in and just letting the guest do their thing, you must step in and take control of your podcast. Take control of the product that your audience will consume.

Add your personality

Your audience will be more familiar with you than the guest. They’re coming for you (oftentimes) more than for the guest. Make sure you’re giving them what they’re coming for.

Share your stories, jokes, lessons learns, etc. add your perspective to the conversation.

Kill all filler phrases

Adter editing a number of podcasts where I interviews guests, I noticed that I kept saying “that’s powerful” after every answer the guest would give. I asked Jordan about this and he said that you’re using that phrase as a filler before transitioning to another topic. You don’t need that filler, you don’t need to acknowledge what they said, just ask the next question.

It feels a bit weird since in normal conversation you often acknowledge what the other person said before starting the next topic, but you have to be efficient with time with a podcast. Spending time acknowledging every statement the person makes is actually wasting time. Now if they say something truly profound yes you should take a minute to acknowledge that and make sure your audience catches it, but most things aren’t that powerful or deep. You can just ask the next question.

Don’t overthink this. After the interview is done thank them for taking time out of their schedule to come on your show.

Once the podcast is live send them an email thanking them again and letting them know where they can find the episode.

Follow them on social media if you want to stay connected (you don’t have to stay connected with every guest) and whenever something happens just shoot them a message. For example they post about having a baby - comment congratulating them. This way they’ll remember you and if you want to invite them back on for another discussion the process will be a lot easier.