How to Improve your Podcast Interview Skills
Everyone says you need to develop outstanding content to grow an audience. This is true for written content for blogs, videos, and podcasts. However, interview improvement for a podcast is the third rail nobody wants to touch.
Here we list seven areas for improvement. They range from getting feedback to avoiding moderator domination of the conversation.
1. Feedback request
Most beginning podcasters will ask their family and friends to listen to their podcast. The beginning podcaster will ask some superficial question like, “What do you think of my podcast?” What do you expect your relatives to say? You will be sitting across from this person at Thanksgiving or Christmas, they must be careful. Who does not love “you are great,” but this does not help you at all.
Here are the two questions to ask
- When did you stop listening? You can learn a lot about your opening and how to edit to increase listening time.
- Would you tell someone else about the podcast? This sounds like the old Net Promoter question because it is. “Word of mouth” is one of the best ways for you to get more listeners.
Besides, what qualifications does your Aunt Matilda have when it comes to evaluating broadcasters? How many of your family group have ever been in front of a microphone?
Start off buy finding a podcaster who is your equal, using a metric like the same number of downloads. Ask to exchange thoughts on improvement of the interview. This is a two-way street, when you are honest with your colleague, they will be honest with you.
When you improve your skills as a moderator, a guest will be relaxed and be more willing to recommend people in their network to get on your show.
If somebody has a following, they do not want to be associated with a poor-quality moderator. They may look at your invitation and listen to an interview. Everyone knows within five minutes if the moderator is sharp, focused, and knows how to ask questions.
Next, level up. Find a podcaster who has more downloads and has a proven history in a field that is completely different from yours. If you have a satellite and space podcast, ask a sports podcaster to listen. Humbly ask for advice. They certainly have no dog in the fight and will be frank.
The final level is to hire a radio professional to listen and make suggestions. They have trained ears and can make recommendations you never even considered. I have used Steve Martin from SFM Consulting. He has decades of experience with marketing NPR shows and has a great ear.
2. Wasted opening to the podcast
Listeners are busy — they will scan the show notes page and listen to a few seconds to see if a podcast is worth their time. Open with a provocative statement or a paradox to hook the listener.
For example . . . “concrete is the only construction material that gets stronger with time. Some Roman concrete construction is still standing”
For example . . . “there are over two million feral pigs in Texas. They have caused billions of dollars of damage”
For example . . . “115,000 satellites are planned to enter space by 2030”
3. Not enough prep
Do not “wing it.” You will fail. Spend three hours researching your guest and topic.
Start with LinkedIn. In my last interview a guest listed two previous occupations: Director of Engineering for Amazon Prime and “Chief Cook and Bottle Washer” for K-NFB Reading Technologies. During the interview, I mentioned his job titles in a humorous manner. He immediately relaxed and we had a tremendous exchange. He told me nobody had ever reviewed his LinkedIn profile before an interview.
Chances are that your podcast is not the first presentation your guest has ever given. Find previous interviews and learn the voice of your guest. Listen for regional differences in pronunciation. You may even write down a quote in a previous interview and use it in your interview.
For example,
Moderator, “Who said ‘Infrastructure-as-a-Code will become popular in the next eighteen months’?”
Guest, “Sounds like me!”
People love to hear themselves quoted.
4. Take notes while listening
During the interview, write down specifics that the guest says, then refer to them later in the interview.
For example, “Earlier you said DevSecOps can include testing; how does this apply to the hybrid cloud?
For example, “In the beginning of our conversation, you mentioned that debris in space can impact military communications. What did you mean by that? “
5. Crutch words
Humans have crutch words and phrases they fall back on. If you do not get feedback that includes identification of these overworked phrases, you may not notice you are even saying them. These are tolerable in a normal, face-to-face conversation, but it is amplified in a recorded interview.
In fact, these can be extremely irritating and can make listeners abandon the podcast. Current trending catch phrases include, “That’s so random, “One hundred percent,” “That’s so meta.”
6. Energy Level
You can go back to step one and ask a fellow podcaster what they think of your energy level. For most humans, it is almost impossible to critique their own amount of enthusiasm.
One aspect of measuring enthusiasm might be something like spoken words per minute. Some tools have been developed to measure words per minute, the most promising being SpeechRateMeter from https://intontrainer.by/
Words per minute is not the absolute way to measure enthusiasm. It is more of an art than a science and you will have to rely on several professionals to give feedback.
You can listen to stand up comedians on YouTube to get an idea of timing and emphasis.
7. Rehearse questions ahead of time
An interview is frequently an emotional exchange. Even if questions are written down, you can get distracted; you can get caught up in the interview and miss key strategic questions.
Jocko Willink once authored a book titled Discipline = Freedom. If you have the discipline to memorize twelve questions before the interview, you can have them in strategic reserve. You do not need to use all of them, but, when they are memorized, you can use them in a conversational manner.
When sitting down with a guest, you are actively listening and want to pivot as fast as you can. Boxers and other athletes have “muscle memory.” They train their bodies to react in a certain way. When you physically rehearse the questions aloud, you are creating muscle memory that will allow you to pull up these questions in a glib manner during the interview.
While in the midst of the interview, think of what the next attack point will be. You may have six or seven options, if you have “muscle” memory of the questions, then you can be fluid and conversational.
8. Wanting to dominate the conversation
Platform speakers love the stage, so much so that it is often hard to get them to shut up. As a result, professional speakers frequently are great podcast guests and terrible podcast moderators.
Please remember, the host is not the star of the show; you are the enabler. You provide the vehicle for the guest to give valuable information for listeners.
Professional speakers always get feedback on their presentation. They should understand that they need a hard-nosed talent evaluator for their podcast as well. The experienced evaluator can listen to one podcast and give you several suggestions to refocus.
Back to Jocko’s advice — success will come when you have the discipline to control, even limit, your words.
Conclusion
Professional baseball players make millions of dollars a year. They record their swing at the plate and try to improve it themselves as much as they can. We can apply this to podcasting.
Many pros get a transcript of their podcast and print it out. They listen to the interview with a highlighter and mark any phrase that is garbled, overworked, or trite. Once you have run out of ways to improve, it is time to seek some professional advice.
To improve the quality of your podcast, look for peer feedback. Think about your opening, crutch words, and energy level. Three hours is a good benchmark to research for a 30-minute podcast. Rehearse your questions ahead of time until they are almost memorized.
Quality is a difficult concept or podcasters, if you take these suggestions to heart you will improve your interview skills
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John Gilroy is the Managing Partner of The Oakmont Group. He offers a free 30 minute evaluation of your podcast.
