I had the opportunity to do a Facebook Live the other day with Cindy J. The Visibility Wiz. We talked about podcasting and why now is a great time to begin building your authority in your space using a podcast.
In this interview, we discussed a few different things regarding podcasting and building an online business.
We talked about why now is the right time to have a podcast. We also discussed why podcasting is a great way to demonstrate your authority and be a leader.
It is a crazy time in the world right now as we battle the coronavirus. We talked about how to address the state of society on your show.
I am part of Cindy J’s Business Success Giveaway. This is an opportunity for you to get over 40 free gifts to help you build a business around your podcast.
You can get 40+ free gifts here: (deadline is April 17, 2020)
Your podcast allows you a great opportunity to demonstrate your authority while talking about a topic that you love. If you structure the focus of your show properly, your podcast can be an amazing tool to drive your business and generate revenue.
Here are 7 ways to attract your ideal clients by using a podcast along with a case study to show you how it can be done.
You have tried to grow your coaching business and make money with your podcast, but nothing seems to be working. You have searched the internet and see many with the same question.
The gurus make it sound so easy. Launch a podcast, create a course, sell it to your audience and vacation in the Bahamas while working your four-hour workweek. What else could there be?
There are a few reasons you are not making money with your podcast. Your audience size probably isn’t one of those reasons.
This quick course will teach you how to avoid the 6 pitfalls that prevent most podcasters from making money with their show. Learn how to avoid the trouble and use your podcast to demonstrate your authority and grow your coaching business.
Jump in to get the 40+ free gifts. The giveaway ends on Friday, April 17, 2020. Get in before they are gone.
How Your Podcast Guest Can Build Your Authority – Episode 212
How your podcast guest can build your authority
Do you interview guests on your podcast? Have you ever wondered why so many hosts use interviews? When your listener benefits by the info provided by your guests on a consistent basis, your show is viewed as a great resource. Your podcast guest builds your credibility and authority.
I hear many podcasters stumble through their interviews. They ask the same questions you hear on every other podcast. They do the speed round or the lightning round or the rapid fire questions that never really turns out to be all that fast.
Asking the right questions that allow your guest to be the star in turn makes you a star. Making your guest look great is the key to building your authority.
Make your guest the star. It is your show. You know where it is going. When you interview people on your show, it is always your job to lead your guest and make them the star.
With guests, you must remember you always know more about your show and your audience than your guest knows. You know the goals of your show. You know the plot and strategy. You are always on the show. They are new. Lead your guest.
Phrases like “I’m glad you mentioned that”, “thanks for that great answer” and “I didn’t realize that” make your guest feel they are adding to the show … as long as you are authentic in your comments.
When interviewing a well-known guest, make it easy for them. Open with great questions for which you already know the answer. Talk hosts like Jimmy Fallon and Ellen DeGeneres have producers that do a pre-interview with their guests. They will ask the guest, “If Jimmy asks you about ____, what will you say?”
The producer then puts the great questions on the note cards for the host. Jimmy may not know the answer, but the guest will have an idea for the answer when the question comes.
You may not have a producer. That doesn’t mean you cannot use this technique with your podcast.
If you know your guest has done some amazing things, ask them about it. Then, let them answer. I hear so many hosts interview guests as if they are trying to show the guest how much they actually know. In turn, they answer the question as they are asking it. This leaves the guest very little to say.
You and your show become great when you make your guests the star.
WELCOME TO THE PARTY
There will always be new people joining your podcast. Never take your audience for granted. Never act like you have been there and done that. Your listener is still enamored by your celebrity status and ability to do what you do.
When you have an opportunity to talk with celebrities in your niche, your audience will be impressed. Treat every guest with great respect. Be humble. Be real. Be just as amazed as your listener is by the things you get to see and do.
Help your new listener get up to speed with your podcast. Inside jokes only make your new listener feel like they are not part of the group. You want your podcast to feel inclusive. If a new listener feels like they are being left out of the inside jokes, they will leave quickly. Your listener will feel unwelcome. Nothing will keep them around if they feel left out.
When you are interviewing a guest, avoid saying things like, “We were talking about this before we hit record.” This sends the message to your audience that they were left out of a conversation. Be inclusive. It is show business.
If you were talking about something great before you hit record, you know the answer and you know if it is great content. There is no harm asking it again or leading your guest down that path.
If your guest told you they recently spoke at an industry event, you do not need to set it up during the interview with a “we talked about this before”. The listener was not part of that conversation. Therefore, “we” didn’t talk about it before. The listener is part of this conversation. It would be better to say, “You recently spoke at a conference. What did you find?” Let your guest tell the story again.
I recently heard a host on a podcast say, “I don’t do this to grow the audience. I just do this for fun.” It should always be fun AND to grow the audience. Rarely is your audience size staying the same. It is either growing or shrinking.
You will always have listeners that go away never to return. If you aren’t doing something to grow new listeners to replace those that are leaving, you will soon have no listeners. You might as well be sitting in a room talking to yourself. There will be no need to record your material, because there will be nobody listening.
Help your new fan get familiar with the show quickly. Make it easy to understand and get involved. Include your listener. If you need to bring up something a new listener wouldn’t understand, explain it. There is never a reason to include an inside joke. A joke that needs to be explained is rarely funny.
AUTHORITY BY ASSOCIATION
Guests are a great opportunity to demonstrate your authority. It is authority by association.
When you have a guest on your podcast, it is your job as the interviewer to make the interviewee look good. You are the professional. You know everything there is to know about your podcast. Your guest is new to your show. They may even be new to interviewing. Help them.
When you help your guest get comfortable and look good, you help them successfully promote whatever it is they came on your show to promote. They will be grateful for that. Your guest will see the benefit of being a guest on your show. You will develop a reputation. That success will help you book even better guests in the future. Word will spread.
Think of some great interviewers. Consider people like Larry King, Johnny Carson and Jimmy Fallon. Are they considered great because how much they know or because their guests are always entertaining?
Interview hosts are great, because they have great guests and help the guest be entertaining.
THREE STEPS TO AUTHORITY
There are a three steps you can take to help your guest look good and thereby build your authority.
No Yes/No
First, ask open-ended questions. This will allow your guest to convey the information they have come to share. If you ask yes/no questions, your guest will be stuck trying to figure out how to get his point across. It will also be easy for him to simply say “yes” and leave it at that. You will then be the one trying to find the next point to make. Open-ended questions allow your guest to elaborate on their subject.
What’s In It For Me?
Second, know why your guest is on your show and help them make their point. Do a short pre-interview before you start the show. Ask them about the important points they would like to hit. Then during the show, ask them questions that help them make those points. If your guest tells you their spouse really had a huge impact on their success, ask them about their biggest influences in their success. Make it easy for them.
Set Them Up
Lastly, get out of the way. You don’t need to show your guest or your audience how much you know about their topic. It is their topic.
So many hosts ask long, elaborate questions proving just how smart they are and how much they know about the subject. If the host knows it all, there is really no reason to have a guest. (see “One Of You Isn’t Necessary“.) Ask great questions because you know so much. That ability will make you look much better than actually knowing.
Using our previous example of spousal influence, you do not want to say, “Your wife played a huge role in your success with her support. That must have been a real help to you.” You just stole his thunder. You’ve only left him the option to say, “Yes” and make some menial points.
Instead ask, “Who was the one person other than yourself most responsible for your success?” You’ve created some anticipation for your audience. You’ve also just thrown him a softball that he can knock out of the park with a fantastic answer about his wife. He looks great for having such a stellar answer. You also look great for asking such a brilliant question. Everybody wins.
Help your guest succeed. Allow them to answer great questions. Most of all, make ’em look good.
To build your authority through your guest, make your guest the star. Let your guest shine. They are the experts. You will have plenty of time to show your expertise. When the guest looks great, you look great by association. You know that right questions to ask. Over time, you become the authority.
Do you need help with your podcast? E-mail me any time at Coach@PodcastTalentCoach.com. Let’s see what we can do.
Your Podcast Just Destroyed Your Credibility – Episode 208
Use your podcast to build credibility, authority & trust
Your podcast is an amazing tool to build your authority in your space. The content and teaching your provide on your show lets your listener get to know, like and trust you. Be careful. Don’t let your podcast destroy your credibility. Use it to build authority with careful selection of content and editing.
It happened in all of about thirty seconds. The reading of one e-mail and her credibility was shot.
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts. The host will occasionally answer e-mail questions from listeners. This particular show was no different.
Until this fateful e-mail came along.
I’m changing the names here to protect all involved.
She says, “This next e-mail is from Ivan in Waterloo, Iowa”. It wasn’t really Waterloo, but some similar small town. The e-mail author also had a unique name.
She continued on with the e-mail. It appeared Ivan works in his family business. His parents expect him to eventually take over the shop. However, Ivan has no interest in continuing on with this line of work. He as other aspirations. He was asking for advice with regard to telling his parents.
At the end of the e-mail, he says, “Please keep this anonymous.”
Ivan is obviously concerned that his parents would find out before he had the chance to discuss it with them.
The host says, “Well, I didn’t do a very good job of that, did I?”
WHAT?!?!?!
The host said something to the effect of, “Let’s just hope mom and dad won’t hear this podcast.”
How could any host just let that slide?
On the surface, she just let Ivan down. But it goes so much deeper than that. The comment completely destroyed her credibility. There are six major issues with letting that disclosure remain part of the show.
6 BIG PROBLEMS
1. Ivan No Longer Trusts The Host
Ivan just revealed a deep, personal issue to the host. It is a conflict he has between his loyalty to his parents and his own dreams. The problem has obviously created some turmoil in Ivan’s life. Why else would he be e-mailing for help?
The seriousness of the situation is obvious when he asks for anonymity. He surely doesn’t want his parents to be aware of his dilemma until he can explain it on his own terms. If he didn’t have that concern, he wouldn’t have asked to keep his name secret.
By revealing Ivan’s name, the host just shattered any trust she had built with him. Her credibility is shot. Ivan feels betrayed. He can no longer trust that the host will have his best interest at heart. Everything the host has worked to build was just shattered with Ivan.
2. How Many Customers Will The Host Actually Lose?
It is difficult to determine how far-reaching the host’s act will be. When it comes to word-of-mouth, there are as many theories as there are marketers. All agree that an upset customer will tell far more about their experience than a pleased fan.
Pete Blackshaw’s book “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000: Running a Business In Today’s Consumer-Driven World” describes the danger of upsetting clients. The power of social media has allowed upset people to spread the word much, much faster. In today’s connected world, word spreads faster than ever.
It is obvious to see how the host may lose Ivan as a client. Under the surface, the damage to her credibility could be much worse. By the time the damage to the overall business is known, it will be far too late.
3. Ivan’s Parents Are Not The Host’s Only Concern
There is probably a slim chance that Ivan’s parents will hear the podcast. Podcasts are still a niche medium. Unless Ivan turned his parents onto the podcast, mom and dad probably did not stumble across this one particular episode among the hundreds of thousands of podcasts available.
This show doesn’t need to be heard first person by Ivan’s parents to be damaging.
Maybe somebody else in Waterloo, who knows Ivan’s parents, heard the podcast. It is possible somebody in the same industry familiar with mom and dad heard the show. Word can travel to the business owners in many ways.
The show lives forever on the internet. It isn’t hard to imagine the show eventually finding its way into the hands of Ivan’s parents. Simply assuming they won’t hear the show is ignoring reality.
4. Others Will Have Second Thoughts
Those who heard the show will think twice before they e-mail the host regarding a sensitive subject. If the host was flippant with respect to Ivan’s identity, why would any listener think he or she would be treated differently? Most listeners of the show will find it hard to trust the host with their information.
5. Where Can I Trust You
If I can’t trust you with an e-mail, how can I trust you with my business? On the surface, the anonymity of the e-mail seemed inconsequential. Considering how the action affects the other areas of the business, it is easy to see how this becomes a much bigger issue.
People do business with people they can trust. If it appears you do not have your client’s best interest at heart, it is quite likely they will be looking for a new supplier. Trust is everything.
As is often said, it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and minutes to ruin it. An action like this offers quite a blow to the host’s reputation. Rebuilding it will take a long time. The damage to the business could be serious.
6. Edit
This entire issue could have been avoided if the host had simply edited the audio. That is the saddest part of this entire mess. Had she taken the time to edit the intro of the e-mail, the trust would have never been tarnished.
The show wasn’t live. There was no live studio audience. There was no reason the audio couldn’t be changed after the fact.
I realize the podcast is not the primary function of the host’s business. The show is just a part of the overall marketing plan. The host does the podcast once a week as a way to continue to spread the message. That does not excuse the issue.
If the host cannot be trusted with a minor issue like podcast content, she cannot expected to be trusted with larger pieces of business.
As you move forward with your podcast, remember that your show will exist for quite some time. Be careful with the content you choose to include. In most every case, you do not get hurt by what you leave out. Be completely confident with your content before you post your show.
Be sure you do not damage your reputation by one lapse in judgement. Your entire show and corresponding business is built on that trust. Protect your trust with everything you have.
Do you need help with your podcast? E-mail me any time at Coach@PodcastTalentCoach.com. Let’s see what we can do.
