How To Prepare Podcast Guests for Amazing Interviews

Episode Transcript
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Jordan (00:00):
Sorry, I've got so many sirens out my window right now.
Sorry, hold on a second, Ican't hear them at all, it's bad
.

Alban (00:05):
You can never hear anything.
Jordan makes up.
Oh, there's an airplanecircling around.

Priscilla (00:12):
This is going to be an interesting episode.

Jordan (00:15):
All right, let me try this again.
All right, we have.

Alban (00:20):
All right, let's start now.
I'm just saying, let's go, I'mready.

Jordan (00:26):
I literally was about to say the first line.
All right, here we go.
Welcome back to Buzzcast, apodcast about all things
podcasting from the people atBuzzsprout.
So we have such a great episodeplanned for you today because
filling in for Kevin isreturning guest Priscilla.

(00:48):
So Priscilla is the head ofpodcaster success here at
Buzzsprout and the host of happyto help, which is our podcast
about remarkable customersupport, and one of the things
that is so great about Priscillaas a podcast host is that she
has this ability to prep guestsin a way that makes them feel so

(01:08):
confident and comfortable inour episodes, even if they're
not podcasters.
Like they may be veryuncomfortable in front of the
microphone, and so that's areally hard thing to do.
So what we'll be talking aboutin this episode is preparing
guests to make them feel moreconfident and getting great
interviews out of that.
But first, what I want to talkabout as the podcast producer

(01:30):
here is, if we go back to whenwe very first started the
podcast, you had been helpingpodcasters start podcasting like
easing doubts that they mayhave had in the support inbox
for what seven years.

Priscilla (01:44):
Yeah, yeah, cause I had been with Buzzsprout since
2017.
And so by the time we launchedthe podcast, which was about a
year ago, I had been helpingpodcasters learn how to podcast
and launch and keep podcastingfor like just about eight years,
seven and a half years,something like that Okay.

Jordan (02:00):
And so you went from the person who was just like
encouraging podcasters, helpingto educate them you knew
everything about podcasting.
There was to know, right.
And then you had to actuallystart a podcast.
What was so different from whatyou were anticipating with
starting a podcast from likewhat actually happened, like
what surprised you the mostabout it?

Priscilla (02:21):
I feel like the thing that was the biggest challenge
was the fact that I was going tobe sharing my own thoughts from
my brain in a public recordedway.
I'm a little bit of a controlfreak and so I like to have full
control of you know what I'msaying or what I'm showing to
people.
And so I think when I was doingthe podcast in the beginning,
there was an aspect of I have tolet go of some of that like

(02:43):
control that I have because I'mgoing to want to make sure that
I don't release anything unlessit is like absolutely perfect.
Yeah, and with podcasting thenature of sitting down and
having a free, flowingconversation that people are
going to want to listen to youhave to let go of some of that,
because if you keep it so tightand scripted all the time,
sometimes it can feelinauthentic, and so that was a

(03:03):
big struggle, was like figuringout how I was going to let go of
that hyper perfection aspectand then also just sharing my
thoughts, the vulnerability thatcomes along with that, and
putting it out into the world,and then inviting people to come
listen to me when sometimes I'mlike are these thoughts worth
sharing in the first place?
I don't know, and so I thinkyou're right.

(03:24):
I knew a lot about the technicalside of podcasting and I was
really good at encouraging otherpeople to share their insights
because I could see from theoutside, looking in, that the
insights that they were sharingwere valuable.
But when it came to me actuallysharing my insights, they did
not seem valuable, and so it wasa lot harder to convince myself
of that.
Luckily enough, I had peoplelike Jordan and Alban and Kevin

(03:46):
and other people from theBuzzsprout team encouraging me,
and so I was able to pushthrough some of that like
imposter syndrome.
In the beginning, I mean andhonestly like still now, but
it's way easier to step backfrom it and see how something,
how my thoughts and insights onthings, can actually be valuable
to some people, even if itfeels very vulnerable to
actually do that.

Alban (04:07):
Yeah, I had so many of the same experiences and it's
funny how quickly theydisappeared or they feel so far
in the rearview mirror now.
But there was a whole periodwhere I like imagined specific
people from college.
Like, for some reason, in thishypothetical made up scenario, I
was posting my podcast onFacebook and people were seeing

(04:28):
it and then thinking in theirhead what an idiot.
First off, I never posted anyof them on Facebook because that
isn't the right place for me toshare it, but I was like always
insecure that these randompeople from, like, high school
or college would think poorly ofme, people who I didn't even
talk to anymore.

Priscilla (04:46):
Yeah, right.

Alban (04:47):
I'd imagine other people who should be doing the show
that I was imagining I would do.
I was like, oh, I'll do oneabout the podcasting industry.
And then I'm like, well, maybeyou know, adam Curry's already
doing one of them and he foundedpodcasting.

Priscilla (05:00):
So, what?

Alban (05:01):
why is there space for me ?
Oh, I'd like to do a marketingshow, but this person who's a
better marketer than me, they'realready doing a podcast, or at
least they should be doing it,so there's not somewhere for me.
And everybody you talk to likealmost every podcaster has these
feelings of oh, people aregoing to think I'm dumb.
People are going to think whyis this the person who's doing
the show?

(05:21):
Why are they so high onthemselves and think they're the
expert?
You know they must think sohighly of themselves to start a
podcast.
The real answer is, if anyone'scritiquing you like that,
something's going on wrong inlike their head not yours it
doesn't matter, just share whatyou want to share, and if they
don't like it, then they won'tsubscribe.

(05:43):
End of story.
Yeah, exactly.

Priscilla (05:46):
You know, I think of the fact that I don't think I've
ever approached a podcast andreally been like, oh, this
person is so dumb, they shouldnot be doing this podcast.
But that's how I felt, likepeople were approaching mine and
I'm like it's just so twisted.
I would never go there forsomeone else's podcast.
It might not be something Iwant to listen to because I'm
not interested in the topicthat's possible but I'm not
going to go.

(06:06):
Man, they really aren'tqualified to do that podcast.
I'd be like good for them forhaving the confidence to start
that podcast, even if I'm notlistening to it or even if it's
not my cup of tea or whatever.

Alban (06:29):
And it's funny because I had the same thoughts, Alban.
I was like people are havingthat thought, yeah, and you,
having seen hundreds ofthousands of Buzzsprout
podcasters reach out to supportyear after year after year so
many and you're reading allthese shows and many of them are
really good, but some of themare just like, hey, I'm just
trying this out for one episode.
That's all they'll ever do.
If you're not coming up withthe idea what an idiot.
This person doesn't know whatthey're doing, probably nobody's

(06:50):
really thinking that, or ifpeople are, like they already
had something against you anyway, so they're making up reasons.

Priscilla (06:56):
Exactly.
Yeah, they have some otherthings going on like you were
saying that's going to causethem to think that about other
people.
Saying that's going to causethem to think that about other
people, yeah, but most of thetime when I see a new podcast,
I'm like how cool is it thatthis person has a passion this
strong about this super nichething?
Whether it is something I ampassionate about or not, that's
always.
Where my head goes is how coolthat they are going to start

(07:17):
talking about this thing thatthey love.

Jordan (07:19):
Okay.
So, as I had said earlier, oneof the reasons why we had you on
the podcast is because you havebeen so good at putting podcast
guests at ease, and I know itsounds like I'm just saying this
, but sitting in on theserecordings of happy to help, one
of the common things that isbrought up by I swear on my life

(07:39):
, like every guest that we haveon the show is, oh my gosh, I
feel so comfortable, I feel soprepared.
You're so great at likeoutlining.
Thank you so much.
I feel so excited for this.
I was nervous, but now I'm likeexcited about it, and so I
think that there's a lot ofdifferent steps that you take to
get to that point.
But do you think that yourbackground in customer support

(08:04):
you know all these years of likehelping people feel prepared?
Do you think that that hashelped you with preparing
non-podcasting guests feelcomfortable when they get into
an?

Priscilla (08:14):
interview specifically customer support in
podcasting, because I've spentso many years working with
podcasters who are new andnervous to start their podcast.
I've literally been doing thisas my work for years and years

(08:35):
of helping people feelcomfortable in the podcasting
space.
It's just not been on a podcastrecording with me, but it's been
that I'm helping them feelcomfortable to go and record
their own first episode.
And so I think you're right, andI don't even think I really
ever thought about it like thatuntil just now when you asked
that question, because I thinkthat makes that transition so
much easier, because I'm tryingto think about it as if this

(08:57):
person who's coming on the showwith me is like those podcasters
who's coming on their firstpodcast.
Even if they're not, even ifthey're a seasoned podcaster, I
still want to make sure that, asthe host of the show, I am
making it as comfortable aspossible for them so that they
can come in and be as confidentas possible sharing their
insight that I'm going to try toget out of them for my

(09:18):
listeners.
Yeah, so I think we had ourfirst guest on Happy to Help I
don't know like five or sixepisodes in, and I was feeling
like I want to make sure thatI'm helping my guest feel as
comfortable as Jordan washelping me feel when we were
doing episode one, and so it'skind of like part of preparing
for the guest and making themfeel comfortable is also

(09:39):
preparing to make myself feelcomfortable.
You know what I mean.

Alban (09:43):
Yeah, I'm now noticing all these memories of bad
podcast interviews.
I've been on yeah.
And I have just this list ofthings that can go wrong, and
they became things that Inaturally try to avoid when I'm
interviewing someone.

Jordan (09:56):
Yeah.

Alban (09:57):
So there's times where somebody shows up two minutes
late and you've been kind ofsitting there and now you're
anxious that you missed the timeand you feel like silly.
Then they show up and they juststart the recording right away.
There's no niceties.

Priscilla (10:09):
Yep.

Alban (10:10):
One where I was pretty sure they didn't know which of
their guests was doing therecording, and so they're kind
of like figuring out who I waswhile I was there.
You know just times where likeit's so abrupt and you're like I
don't know if the style of theshow is going to be combative or
friendly.
Or are we talking aboutpodcasting?

(10:31):
Are we talking about marketing?
Are we talking about my careerpath, or like what is it?
Yeah, you know people who don'tsend questions beforehand.
Sometimes you're like yes.
I literally have no idea wherethis conversation is going to go
, so I'm just trying to show upand be open to it.
But I've gotten some strangequestions over the years, so
it's really nice when you knowsomebody gives you even if it's

(10:54):
not the full questions.
It's like here's the topicsthat I want to hit.

Priscilla (10:57):
This is the general outline.

Alban (10:58):
Yeah.

Priscilla (10:59):
When I think about it in terms of happy to help, I
want to make sure that thepeople who choose to give me an
hour of their time to listen tothis episode or 40 minutes or
whatever the episode ends upbeing I want to make sure that
it's bringing value to them andthat they don't listen through
it and go.
I didn't really learn anythingthere and I know that I have a
better shot of that if I have ageneral idea for where I want

(11:19):
the episode discussion to go andthat that aligns with the
person that I'm bringing on theshow and what they can offer my
listeners.
Because if you don't even gothat far to have an idea of what
the value is going to bring,then you're just going to end up
with a lot of episodes thatmight be entertaining but might
not have a ton of value, and so,depending on what you're
talking about, it might be okayto have less structure.

(11:40):
But if you're trying to have apodcast where people are
learning from your show andthey're listening and they're
taking back insight into theirwork, so, like for Happy to Help
, we talk about creatingremarkable support experiences I
want support professionals tolisten to it and to be able to
grow from it.
So I need to make sure thatevery episode that we do has
that value.

(12:01):
And if I don't prepare ahead oftime or correctly research the
guest or make sure the audio isgood or any of those things,
then it's going to be harder inthe moment of recording to make
sure that value happens.

Jordan (12:13):
Yeah, and let's talk about what you said about.
You know, even if your podcastdoesn't have a lot of structure,
you still need to prep, and Ithink that is so true because
you get so many podcasters whereit's like, it's conversational,
it's free flowing.
You know, we're very likeauthentic and raw, and what a
lot of people don't realize isthe more comfortable your guest

(12:35):
is and the more prepared theyare, the easier it is going to
be for them to be conversationaland free flowing and at ease.
And I think that that's one ofthe biggest things about why.
You know, preparing your guestsreally, really matters to your
podcast, regardless of howstructured it is.
You know, maybe you'reeducational, maybe you're just

(12:56):
talking about kids orcomplaining about work, whatever
, but I think that you stillneed to have at least some sort
of outlining with your podcast.
Make sure that your guest feelscomfortable with the topics
being discussed, make sure thattheir audio is going to sound
good, you know, because that'sgoing to make things go so much
easier.
And you're not going to bethinking about the actual

(13:16):
recording part of it.
You're going to be thinkingabout connecting with the person
that you have on your podcast.

Alban (13:21):
Yeah, I think that there's a couple of very high
profile podcasters orinterviewers who don't do much
prep.

Jordan (13:29):
Really.

Alban (13:29):
And so what I think of Joe Rogan does not do prep for
his shows Really Doesn't do much.
Larry King famously did nonebefore.
He would interview people andyou get a type of content which
is interesting.
It's like they're exploringalong with you, but they haven't
gone and done a ton of prep.
It's more just kind of like I'mfollowing my intuition.

(13:51):
We forget, like Rogan is acomedian.

Priscilla (13:54):
He's a personality, yeah.

Alban (13:55):
Yeah, and so that's why that show works.

Priscilla (13:58):
Yeah.

Alban (13:58):
And people hear it and they go oh so I don't need to do
prep.
Well, you're not a comedian,you never were a talk show host,
you haven't done hundreds andhundreds of hours of this stuff
where you are very good at justleading a conversation, even
when it gets stale.
The other side are podcastersor interviewers who do a ton of

(14:18):
prep.
You know, I think of, likeTyler Cowen, who will read like
every book the person wrotebefore doing an interview and is
not asking a single questionthat could be found in another
interview.
Everything is, hey, assumingsomebody's read everything
you've ever done.
Here's the other questions thathave never been asked and I
think, like we all, are going tofall between those two extremes

(14:40):
.
I'm going in cold or I'm goingin having read everything, but
the chances that it blows upalmost all the real blow up
interviews all happen at the.
I did almost no research thatside.
I know that there's a type ofcontent that works, but it's
very personality driven.
There's got to be some reallygood energy, there's got to be

(15:01):
good chemistry, but mostly whatreally works well is a lot of
prep, so that you go oh, there'snot a real good story there.
Normally people would think I'dask about that, but there's
really not a good story.
Oh, there seems to be a reallyinteresting story around.
I'm remembering a story ofsomebody who they found an
anecdote that the person they'reinterviewing got over their
fear of flying, but they neveranywhere else talked about how

(15:22):
they got over their fear offlying.
And so Tyler Cowen goes how doyou get over your fear of flying
?
And he goes oh well, I startedhang gliding.
I do small hang gliding, littlethings, and I gradually worked
myself up doing more and moreintense hang gliding, realized
how secure a winged aircraft is,and thus I never was afraid on
an airplane again.
I'm like you found a reallyinteresting story because you

(15:45):
read everything and you realizedthere was a solution and no one
had ever heard the story andyou got it yeah.
Versus somebody who didn't doany prep, who could never have
pulled that story out.

Jordan (15:56):
Yeah, that reminds me of one of the most common
questions I get asked when Iguest on other podcasts is
people asking about how I wentfrom only getting like a
thousand downloads per month tosuddenly like just shooting up
into, you know, over a hundredthousand downloads per month in
like a few months.
And they're always like what'dyou do?
How'd you do that?

(16:17):
And I'm just like I didn't doanything.
I didn't, and that's notinteresting, that's not
compelling, it doesn't leadanywhere because I don't have
answers.
I tried figuring out whathappened.
Couldn't figure out whathappened, I don't know.
It just took off and I think if, like some of the people that
had like interviewed me, hadgone and listened to maybe one
or two of the other interviews Ihad been in, I wouldn't be

(16:37):
asked that question every singletime.
And it's getting to the pointwhere, like, I actually hate
answering that question becauseI know I'm going to let them
down.
I'm not going to have a goodanswer for it.

Priscilla (16:47):
Yeah, I think there is definitely an aspect when
you're doing the research forsomeone that you're going to
have on your show.
For me, before I even get tothe point where I'm asking
someone to come on the show, Iwant to know why I want them on
the show.
So usually I'll be like I'llstumble across someone who says
something that clicks with me,or maybe it's something that is

(17:09):
intriguing, but not necessarilysomething I agree with.
But I know that it's going tobe an interesting conversation
that my listeners will be ableto learn from and grow from.
So I'll hear that or I'll readthat, and then I'll kind of do a
little deep dive into thisperson.
Well, who is this person?
What have they written?
What podcasts have they been onthat kind of a thing?
What have they done?
What's their experience, beforeI even decide whether I want to

(17:30):
ask them on the show.
And I think that sometimes isthe thing for me when I'm
listening to podcasts and I'mlike why is this person here?
Why did we choose this personto have come on the show?
Did we choose them becauseyou're just trying to have
another episode come out andthis person goes on lots of
podcasts, and so I just wantthat person to come and kind of
be the person that I interviewtoday, or is it because you

(17:52):
think there's something specialabout this person and that I, as
the listener, am going to getvalue from this person
specifically?
And so when I'm looking forpeople, I find that the best
episodes that I have are theones where I learn about the

(18:13):
person first and go.
This person is the person tospeak about this one specific
thing, and I want them to cometalk about that with me on my
podcast for my listeners, andnot just a oh, this is a person
who I know does podcasting, andnow let me come up with
something for them to talk about.
You know what I mean?
It's like the topic is theleader and the person is the
expert on that topic, and sothat's why they should come.
I also think that when you startthere and then you reach out to
the person to ask them to comeon your show, you can then give

(18:35):
them so much more of a reasonwhy they should.
Yes, hey, I read this articlethat you wrote about, whatever
it is.
I mean, I think of the firstperson that we had on, happy to
Help, sarah Caminiti.
I reached out to her becauseshe had something called the
Kindness Initiative oh yeah,about how to lead support teams
with kindness and I thought thatwas such a cool idea, yeah.

(18:56):
And so I was like, hey, Ireally want you to come talk
about this thing that you feelpassionately about.
And so when she got that email,she was like, oh my gosh, not
only is this person asking me tocome promote the stuff I've
worked on, but they actuallycame to me because they know
about the stuff I worked on,right, and that's why they want
me to come.

Jordan (19:13):
Yeah, she has other things on her resume.
Yeah, but you chose thispassion project that she has.

Priscilla (19:19):
Because I feel like it will bring value to the
people that are listening to thepodcast, and so I think that
can really help when you knowthat why and let that be the
reason why you're reaching outto someone, versus just saying,
hey, I know that you're like abig mover in the space, you want
to come be on my show.
Because then it can feel likehey, I know you have a lot of
followers, you want to come onmy show and bring all your
followers to me.

(19:39):
That can potentially feel likeyou're just the next warm body
to put in my you know my guestchair.

Alban (19:45):
There's so many podcasts you can see the same guest ends
up on like eight of the top 10shows and they all kind of
circulate the same rotatingguest list and it's like, oh,
this person was on this show,then they got on that show and
then they were invited on thisshow and they did the same and
it's like it's the same guy.
I did the same and it's likeit's the same guy.
It's like why we don't need tohear the same person get

(20:07):
interviewed with the same angles.

Jordan (20:09):
Yeah.

Alban (20:13):
Just because they went and did the podcast circuit for
a little bit.
And I recently listened to aninterview on the Dwarkesh
podcast and he has interviewedlike Mark Zuckerberg and Sasha
Nadella from Microsoft and SamAltman from OpenAI Anyone in AI
he's interviewed and yet his topfour episodes are all
historians and three of them areSarah Payne, who was kind of

(20:36):
like an unknown academic beforeshe went on this podcast.
Her episodes are crushing.
The Mark Zuckerberg interviews.
That's wild episodes arecrushing the Mark Zuckerberg
interviews.
That's wild.
Why?
Because she knows everythingabout these few periods of
history and it's reallyinteresting and she's a great
storyteller.
And Mark Zuckerberg is comingin with a bunch of prep around.

(20:57):
How do we want this to soundwith our through?
You know, we got our pressrelease and we want to do all of
this prep for how we positionourselves, and so you get kind
of a CEO who's been, even thoughthey're like the biggest name
you could get, they're stillprepped down to don't say
anything too interesting, kindof stick to the talking points

(21:18):
that we already did on fiveother podcasts.
And finding a relativelyunknown person who you are like,
oh wow, there's somethinginteresting and different and
they have a differentperspective that actually can
dominate even just the downloadnumbers.
I just think it's sointeresting.
And so he had this interviewwhere he talked about yeah, my

(21:39):
top four episodes are all thesehistorians and you look at the
guest list and you're like itcouldn't be more star studded
and yet they're all losing outto just interesting people.

Priscilla (21:49):
Yeah, and it just shows that people like good
conversation over talking pointsand people can see through when
it's just those talking pointsand oh, this person is here to
promote XYZ and they're doingthe podcast tour.
But when it's someone coming onand talking about the thing
they're passionate about and itis fostering this really good

(22:10):
conversation, that's what peoplewant to hear.

Jordan (22:12):
Yeah, and Alban, you do a lot of guest prep for
Buzzsprout Conversations.
It's interesting because youare interviewing creators, and
so I want to hear what you do toprepare for guest interviews.
And then I want to see if it'sa little bit different, or,
priscilla, if you have adifferent experience basically

(22:33):
interviewing non-contentcreators, and how you go about
it too.
So, Alban, I want to start withyou and kind of just see what
kind of things that you use toprepare for your interviews or
do some guest research.

Alban (22:44):
So I started that show, I think, with an interview of
Jordan Harbinger, and when I didthat, I think I did 40 hours of
prep.
Whoa, I committed to I'm goingto do as much prep as I can, and
so I listened to everyinterview of his that I could
where he talked about creatingpodcasts, which apparently he'd
actually done a lot.
At that point, I went and readtons of his old tweets and I

(23:07):
think I found some blogs hewrote, and then I listened to
actual episodes and one of thethings I found out was he'd been
a lawyer and I'd been a lawyerand he talked about how he did
guest prep and it sounded likewhat I was doing and I realized,
oh, what we're both doing iswhat lawyers do all the time,
which is depo prep, which is youread every document and then

(23:27):
you write questions that youknow the answer to, or at least
you think you know the answer,and so you ask it.
And when they don't knowexactly what the answer is out
there, then you go oh, here's aninterview that you said in like
2008.
And they're like oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the story.
Okay, I'm going back.
And so it was only through thatprep that I realized my style
was I love doing more researchthan is like reasonable and like

(23:51):
only do the research on peoplethat are interesting to you so
that you can ask questions thatwill be different, that didn't
get asked on every other podcast.
And then every once in a while,when I've done that show, I
will try I don't know if I'vedone that show, I will try.
I don't know if I've ever saidthis, but I will think of a
podcast or who I admire and Iwill be like all right, I'm
trying to mimic their style,like what kind of questions

(24:12):
would they be asking?

Jordan (24:14):
Oh, interesting yeah.

Alban (24:15):
And then I'm trying to come up with questions and I
only feel like I use half of thequestions that I wrote and you
end up trying to be in themoment and follow people,
because sometimes they saysomething and you're like, oh
well, that was actually way moreinteresting than anything I had
prepped.
Tell me more about it.
I'd like to hear yourperspective on this, priscilla.
How often is the conversationfollowing stuff you already

(24:36):
prepped, and how much is it inthe moment?

Priscilla (24:38):
Well, it's funny because when you were talking
about that interview with JordanHarbinger and then with Kate
Casey, also.
And when I was in the process oflaunching Happy to Help, I
remember thinking about how muchtime you had put into those,
those two specifically, but justthe prep.
You had posted something inBasecamp or something about how
much time you had put into itand I remember thinking, oh my

(25:00):
gosh, if I have guests on thispodcast, I'm going to have to
spend 40 hours or 20 hours orwhatever it was doing prep.
This is going to be way tootime consuming.
I can't do that.
And so right off the bat, I wasvery nervous about having
guests on because I knew howmuch prep you had done.
So now, hearing you explainthat it was the depo prep part
of your brain, I'm like, okay,that makes so much sense.

(25:20):
I think it's very important tobe prepared and to do that
research and to have a frameworkfor the episode.
Whether that's exact questionsor whether it's an outline of
where you want the conversationto go, I think you need to do
enough research that you havethat basis so you're not coming
into it completely cold, becauseif you come in completely cold,

(25:41):
sometimes it can expose yourlack of preparation.
I guess just the fact that youdon't know who you're talking to
, and so you need to be able tohave at least enough of a
working knowledge of the personand of what they're going to
talk about to be able to engagein a conversation, especially if
you're new and it's notsomething that you've been doing
for years and years and years.
But when I am prepping, I willdo research on the person.

(26:04):
I'll get a good understandingof who they are.
I'll listen to some of theirpast episodes or podcasts or
things they've written or waysthey've talked about things, but
I try not to get too much intothe weeds on that, because I
almost like approaching themwith not knowing the answer to
what I'm going to ask them andthen to answer your question,
Alban, I feel like all of thatpreparation is really good, but

(26:26):
once you sit down and startrecording with someone, you have
to be okay with it notfollowing exactly the outline
that you've put together 100%.
Yeah, because the danger is youare so tight to your outline
that you miss out on really coolconversations because you have
to go back to the questions, oryou miss out on really cool
conversations because you haveto go back to the questions, or

(26:47):
you miss out on a conversationat all because you're just
throwing questions at them andthey're answering them and then
you move to the next questionand you're not responding to the
questions that they have justanswered.
Yeah, and so I think it's goodto prepare, it's good to have
kind of that safety net of anoutline, but sometimes you're
going to veer off of that andyou have to be okay with that in
order to have a really goodconversation that people want to

(27:09):
listen to.

Alban (27:09):
I always tell people that the structure of the outline
and the prep that allows you thefreedom to deviate from it,
yeah, that you feel comfortablegoing in a new direction.
When you're like, oh, I know alot about this person, I know
that this is an interestingdetour and we can come.
But if it's somebody I don'treally know much about them and

(27:34):
I only have four questionswritten down and then they start
going on a new path, then Istart feeling anxious and I'm
like, oh, I got to pull you backbecause we're getting into
territory I know nothing aboutalready and we're two minutes in
or we blitz through the onlytopics I knew about and now you
want to move on to somethingelse.
This is going to get awkwardpretty quick and the prep is
what allows me to feel thecomfort and I really don't want

(27:57):
to like I think I just sharedthat number because I remember
that I kept that much.
I don't think that's doable foralmost anybody.
Luckily, I worked somewherethat was paying me to do the
interview and I really likedJordan and I think I'd met him
at a conference.
I really wanted to do a goodjob.
I knew he did a ton of prep, soI wanted to try to match that
energy.

Jordan (28:18):
Yeah.

Alban (28:18):
So there was a lot of other things going on.
I think most podcasters is justnot.
40 hours is not a reasonableamount of prep.
I think for a lot of people, ifyou're doing five hours of prep
and you're actually going andreading their latest LinkedIn
posts and you actually did finda blog that they wrote and you
listened to a few episodes whileyou were working out and you

(28:39):
jotted down a few questions,you're probably going to have
done more than 90% of theinterviews they've already done
and you're going to getsomething really interesting.

Priscilla (28:47):
Yeah, so you were just talking about that.
Having the outline gives youthe freedom to deviate from it
Made me think of like planningvacations.
I am a big planner.
I love to plan vacations, butpart of the reason that I plan a
vacation is so that we have thefreedom to throw the plan away.

Alban (29:05):
Yes.

Priscilla (29:06):
Because the worst thing about not planning a
vacation, saying I want to goand just do whatever I want,
whatever opportunities open up,that's great, ok.
But what if you end up gettingto the Vatican because you want
to go to the Vatican and you hadto have a ticket, and now you
can't get a ticket to theVatican for another four days,
but you're going to be gone bythen, and so having the plan
there allows you to have thatsafety net so that you can go to

(29:28):
the Vatican because you want todo that.
But then maybe you throw outsome of the plan because there's
something cool that you justfound as you were walking to the
Vatican that you really want todo, and so I think it's like
the same kind of idea Havingthat plan there allows you to
not spend four hours in aparking lot trying to figure out
what you're going to do next.

Alban (29:44):
Yes, the worst thing is like you're on a vacation and
you wrap something up and thenit was like, where should we eat
?
And people start looking up ontheir phone restaurants nearby
and because you're in a uniquecity, everyone's like, well,
it's got to be a good spot.
And now you're rushing around acity trying to find a place to
eat and then you're like what'sbetter would have been a little
bit of prep, picked out a spot,maybe even gotten a reservation,

(30:06):
and then the freedom to say, oh, we met some random person
nearby and they said you've gotto try this place and it sounded
good, so we switched it Right.
No big deal to switch it.
You don't have to be locked instone, but having like some plan
makes it so you don't have todo that like awkward planning
during the event, and I thinkyou're right.
There's a real corollarybetween trip planning and a

(30:28):
podcast interviewing.

Jordan (30:29):
Yeah, okay.
So if a podcast episode is avacation and you're going on
this vacation, how deep are wegetting into this itinerary?
Is this going to be punchlineslike today we're going to go to
the beach and this day we'regoing to go on a tour at a
museum and this day we're goingto do this?
Or are we getting into the moredetailed stuff of like okay, at
this time we're going to talkabout this and here's the outfit

(30:51):
you have to wear.

Priscilla (30:51):
We're all wearing green.

Jordan (30:53):
Exactly so.
Before the interview, youtypically will send an outline
or you'll send questionsinterview questions to the guest
.
How detailed of an outline doyou actually send people?

Priscilla (31:06):
I mean not super detailed.
I like to give them thequestions I'm going to ask and I
give them a little bit of infoon, like, what we're going to
cover in the intro.
So it'll say, like here's theintro, we're going to welcome
guest, we're going to ask theguest this question and then now
we get into the body of it andthese are the two questions that
are falling under this sectionof the conversation and then the
next time it's kind of like youwould outline a paper in school

(31:29):
.

Jordan (31:29):
Yeah.

Priscilla (31:29):
Right, it's just that kind of a basic framework.
I might keep for myself moredetail as the person who's going
to be responsible forcontinuing the conversation flow
, but what I give to the guestis a little bit more bare bones.
I mean, it's all the questionsbut it's not all of the context
around every questionnecessarily.

Alban (31:50):
Oh yeah.

Priscilla (31:51):
And I think that also preparing that and having that
I always go into it with themindset of this is a great
conversation starter, thisoutline.
But if we don't end up gettingto this entire outline or if we
end up going in a little bit ofa different direction with this,
I'm not going to feel like thisis wasted work.

Jordan (32:09):
Yeah.

Priscilla (32:09):
And I think that that's also something because I
know for myself and my ownpersonality.
Sometimes I can feel like, ohmy gosh, I just wasted all this
time because I planned thisoutline and then we got stuck on
the first two questions and wejust kind of stayed there and
had this great conversationabout that.
And I think that having amindset of that's OK if that
happens, because it's stillsolved.
The goal of this podcast was tohave this great conversation

(32:30):
and so even if the outline onlygot, you know, the first two
questions out, that's okay.
And I think there's like amindset going into it and kind
of holding it with an open handwhen you send it and say here's
the details that I'm going toask you about, but no guarantee,
that's where we're going to endup all the time.

Alban (32:44):
You know, I'm really as you talk, the more I'm thinking
I like this.
A podcast episode is like atrip connection, because you're
trying to take people on a tripthey actually want to go on and
you've got to like, so yourlisteners are coming on this
trip with you.
You can't just say we'rechecking out the list of you
know the most famous people whogo on podcast interviews or the

(33:06):
most famous places to go onvacation, because they're both
kind of dead in the same way.
You know they've done the sameinterview over and over, or it's
a tourist trap that everybodygoes to and so there's nothing
interesting there.
So you're trying to plansomething.
So you have these defaults.
You have a plan and then, whenyou're in the moment, if you go

(33:27):
to Rome and everyone's having anamazing time in Vatican City
and everyone's learning a tonand you're wowed by the Sistine
Chapel and you stay in VaticanCity and you do that for three
days, that's okay.
If you missed out on theColosseum because everyone had
an amazing trip in one part ofRome, that's okay.
The worst type of trip is kindof like the worst type of

(33:49):
podcast.
It's the show up, have no planand then go.
What are the most common thingsthat everyone asks this guest
and then he blitz through themand you get no depth, nothing
different, and you're likeeverybody got the selfie with
the Coliseum in the backgroundCool.
Everyone heard Mark Zuckerbergsay like oh, I started Facebook
when I was at Harvard.

Jordan (34:10):
I got the same thing, everybody else gets Great Go for
something different, like I gotthe same thing, everybody else
gets Great, go for somethingdifferent.
Conversely, too, if you havetoo tight of an itinerary and
you're saying, hey, we're goingto go to the Roman history
museum and I, jordan, am goinglike oh my gosh, I'm going to
spend like three hours therebecause it's so interesting and
I want to make sure that we diveinto every single detail, and

(34:32):
then they go.
We have 20 minutes to visitthat museum.
Suddenly, I'm going to havethis feeling of dread and I've.
I've gotten outlines likepre-interview outlines where
it's like intro two minutes,this topic, five to seven
minutes.

Alban (34:45):
And.

Jordan (34:45):
I'm going crap, crap, crap.
I can't talk that fast.

Priscilla (34:49):
I used to.
When we I don't know if youremember Jordan, but my first
like outlines that I did forHappy to Help I was very worried
that I wouldn't have enough totalk about.
Oh my gosh, yes.
And so I would put in timesjust so that I would go.
I need to talk about this for10 minutes, because this episode
shouldn't be seven minutes long.
So I need to make sure that I'mtalking about this for five

(35:10):
minutes and this for 10 minutesand then this for 10 minutes to
like encourage myself to prepareenough to fill up 10 minutes.
Right, yeah, and I think thatpretty quickly I learned that
putting that kind of a timelimit on it is too restricting.
Oh, it's so hard.
Yeah, having the general flowis really good and having a goal
for a time limit is good, butI've been on podcasts where

(35:34):
they're like, hey, this is a30-minute podcast, so we're
going to talk for 30 minutes andthen we're going to be done.
I'd be like great, and thenwe're in the middle of a
conversation.
It's going really awesome, andthen they go okay, well, thanks
so much for being here.
And I'm like, whoa, we're done,and it's because we of a really

(35:59):
good conversation and if it'sjarring to you as the person
who's recording, it's probablygoing to be jarring to your
listeners as well, and so Ithink sometimes you're right.
Putting those like time limitson things or having too many
constraints on your recordingcan really end up biting you.

Jordan (36:09):
Absolutely so.
We talked about sending stuffto the guest to prep them.
So we talked about sendingstuff to the guest to prep them.
I want to hear from both you,priscilla and Alban, what do you
include in a guest prep emailwhen you've booked the guest and
you said great, they want to beon and it's you know.
However, long before theinterview maybe that's something
we can talk about too is like,how early do you send this guest

(36:32):
prep email?
What exactly do you likeinclude in that email so that
you're making sure that youcover all your bases?

Alban (36:39):
I mean man, one that you wouldn't think you need to send
is ask people do you have amicrophone and do you have
headphones that you can use?
Because even people who arepodcasters when I'm interviewing
creators I have still hadpeople who have tens of
thousands of downloads perepisode plus show up without
access to a mic.

(36:59):
And I'm so surprised becauseI'm like you, do this for a
living.
You know that it's not going tosound good and I think that
people just put this thing ontheir calendar and they don't
really think about it.
And so, having a hey, are yougoing to have access to good
wifi?
I've had interviews that thewhole thing's just way more
difficult when someone is like,oh, I'm on vacation and I don't

(37:22):
have good wifi, and it's justlike it's better at that point
to reschedule rather than fightit.
You know trying to get a goodmic.
You know I'm sending the basicseven to the experts, because
having a good mic, havingheadphones and having good Wi-Fi
make everything so much better,and you can fix a lot of this
with magic mastering.

(37:42):
You can fix it with videoediting if you're doing video,
but getting it right at thebeginning will save you so much
time in post.

Priscilla (37:51):
And it communicates to your guest that you care
about how this is going to bedone.

Alban (37:57):
Oh yeah.

Priscilla (37:57):
You care about the final result of the episode.
If you're saying, hey, I wantto make sure you have these
things in place, then they feellike they're taken care of.
They're like, oh, Albanactually wants this to sound
really good at the end.
So I can kind of rest assuredthat he knows what he's doing
and he's going to make sure thatI sound good, can kind of rest
assured that he knows what he'sdoing and he's going to make
sure that I sound good, and hewants me to prepare for it as I
should in order to sound reallygood at the end.
I mean, the three of us I knowI don't know if all the

(38:20):
listeners, but we've been onpodcasts where you're like, oh
gosh, this is not going to turnout well, like I can be in
control of what I'm saying, butI don't have any control over
how the audio is going to soundand have any control over how
the audio is going to sound, andI don't know if I trust this
person, because they're notshowing to me that they are
taking it with the same kind ofcare that they should.
And so I think that when youask those questions, even to an

(38:42):
expert, who's going to be likeoh yeah, I've got headphones,
I've got a mic, I've got asoundproof studio.
They're going to still feellike oh, I've been cared enough
to ask and to make sure that I'mset up well enough to ask and
to make sure that I'm set upwell.
When I send my guest prep email,there's kind of three different
things I talk through.
So the first one is the outline, the content of the episode.
I'll send the outline, I'll letthem know.

(39:04):
I'm a big preparer.
I like to have an outline toknow what the conversation flow
is going to be.
But if that's not your styleand you don't want to look at
the questions ahead of time, youdo not have to.
Oh, interesting, I always tellpeople that if you don't want to
look at them, you don't have to.
Yeah, if you feel confidentenough in your own ability,
because some people are betterat that than over preparing.

(39:25):
Oh, kevin, kevin is a greatexample.

Jordan (39:28):
He does amazing, not preparing.
I cannot do that at all.

Priscilla (39:33):
I can't do that either.
So I always say here's theoutline, check it out, prepare
as much as you feel comfortablepreparing.
Most of the time, people willread through the questions and
then, if they're a preparer,they'll write out their
responses and figure out whatpoints they want to hit, and if
they're not, they're not goingto look at the questions a
second time.
Yeah, and so I always send that, and then I like point out

(39:56):
anything that I need theirresponse on.
So we have a segment on Happyto Help called Support in Real
Life, and so I'll ask them hey,do you want to stick around for
that?
That's optional.
If you don't want to be therefor that, we don't have to
record that with you on therecording.
Or we ask everyone the samequestion, and so I always say,
hey, we're going to ask you howsomeone made your day recently.
I always say, hey, we're goingto ask you how someone made your
day recently and I want you tobe prepared with a good story to

(40:16):
tell.
So I'm going to give you thatinfo ahead of time.
Yeah, the second segment of theemail is like what Alban was
talking about, the audio andrecording details.
So I'm going to give them thelink to the recording studio
that we're going to use, so ourRiverside link.
I'll give them some timeexpectations.
I'm asking for them to taketime out of their day to come
and record with me, and I wantto be respectful of their time

(40:37):
and that that is an ask.
Regardless of the size of theguest you're bringing on, you're
asking for their time.
So I will usually say, hey, Iblock off an hour and a half.
We're not going to record thatfull time, but I want to make
sure that I'm only taking fromyou the amount of time that I
need, and I don't want to eithercut us short or go over it, and
so I want to be really honestabout that.
I give them details on is thisvideo?

(40:59):
Is this audio?
Yes, there's nothing worse thangoing on a podcast and not
knowing that it's going to be avideo podcast.
Yeah until you see it on YouTubeand then all of a sudden you're
wearing a baseball hat and it'sshadow over your face, because
you didn't think about the factthat it was going to be video
until you're sitting there.
So I want to give people thatkind of information ahead of
time.
And then, like Alban was saying, I will say you know, do you

(41:20):
have a microphone, do you haveheadphones?
I'll link to some of ourresources that Buzzsprout has
for guest prep so that the guestcan go and watch this video and
get an idea of what they needto do to prepare on their end.
Yeah, and then the last sectionof that email is my like hey,
and this is the information Ineed from you about you as I

(41:41):
continue to prepare for thisepisode, and so that'll be a
headshot and a bio and whatlinks are really important for
you to be in the episode.
And then I also will ask them ifthere's anything that I didn't
touch on that they really wantto touch on in the outline.
That's a good question.
Yeah, like, is there anythingthat when you read through the
outline, you're like man, youreally missed this, because I'm

(42:01):
not an expert in everything thatyou're an expert in when I'm
bringing you on.
Yeah, so I know that there aregoing to be places where you
know there's some gap maybe, andso I'll always ask.
If there's something that youwant to talk about that I didn't
include in that line, let meknow and I'll find a way to work
it in.
So that's kind of the stuffthat I hit when I send that
email and I have it prettywritten and then I tailor it to

(42:23):
each person when I email it.
But it helps to kind of have itall there and ready to go.

Jordan (42:28):
Okay, so if we're heading into a recording, how
far ahead of time before therecording do you send this like
prep email, because it is a lotof information?

Priscilla (42:38):
We usually record on Thursdays.
I like to send it the Fridaybefore.

Jordan (42:41):
So just about a week before.

Priscilla (42:43):
Okay, yeah, and part of that is because I want to
give plenty of time.
I don't know what your scheduleis like leading up to our
recording, and the last thing Iwant to do is send you something
the day before, and then, allof a sudden, it's made your life
chaotic because you're nowhaving to drop everything to
prepare for this podcast, and soI want to give you plenty of
time so that you can keep a calmenvironment around you and take

(43:05):
time and look at this when itmakes sense.
In your schedule for the nextseven days.
That means that I'm preparingpretty far in advance, but it's
really nice, because then italso allows time for them to ask
questions or say oh well, Idon't really want to talk about
this specific thing you've askedme about, so can we move that
out and then rework things.
It gives a little bit morecontrol to them and just time

(43:27):
for that.
And then if there's questionsabout oh well, I don't have a
microphone or I don't have goodheadphones, they're not having
to like run to Target to buyheadphones that night because
they didn't have headphones.
They can do it over the weekend.

Alban (43:39):
One thing I would add to that is I've had a few people
recently who they send all thatearly but then they send a hey.
By the way, here's the link torecord like 10 minutes before we
do it.
Oh, yeah, like 10 minutes beforewe do it.
Oh yeah, and that is so nice,because what you're effectively
doing is reminding them.

(44:00):
Hey, I know we sent it on thecalendar.
I know we agreed to this twoweeks ago.
I know I've sent you emails,remember, we have our podcast
recording in 10 minutes.
Just a heads up.
But you're doing it in a kindway and at the very top of their
email now is the link to showup.
There's nothing more frustratingthan oh, it's time to go into
the recording.
I want to be there a minuteearly.

(44:22):
I go and I go, oh, it's not inthe invite, and then you're
going back through all of theiremails and I've got six
different.
You've been invited to aRiverside recording emails in
the last two weeks, so I don'tknow which of them was theirs.
So I had a few people do thatrecently and I really like it.
The reminder just a few minutesbefore.

(44:44):
Hey, here's the link to ourrecording.
So I think that's really useful.
I'm probably a little bit lessprepped out than Priscilla on
sending stuff to the peopleearly.
My feeling is I never want toplan to do a podcast interview
more than a few days in advance.
Anyway, I think on the guestside.
I'd rather just be like okay,yes, I'll do it, and we'll do it
in two days, and so I mostly amtrying to do that relatively

(45:08):
quickly.

Jordan (45:09):
Interesting.
Yeah, so just so it's likefresh on their mind.

Alban (45:11):
There's nothing worse for me than like committing to an
interview a month out and thenall of a sudden it's there and
I'm like, oh wow, I've had amonth and I haven't done
anything like.
That feels way worse.

Jordan (45:23):
I did that twice in the last couple of weeks or in a
month, and then it was suddenlylike both of them in the same
week.
I was like, oh no.

Alban (45:30):
When you put something a month out, there's something in
your brain that's like it's notreal, it's not.
And then it shows up and you'relike I don't really want to do
this.
Why did I commit to this?

Priscilla (45:41):
I think it's a really good example of why there is an
aspect of preparing forepisodes that is very
personality based, because I donot want someone to ask me to be
on a podcast tomorrow that willthrow me into a oh my gosh,
what do I do?
And now I'm spiraling and Idon't know.
I don't have anything to saybecause I haven't had a chance
to prep for it.

(46:02):
So I want to make sure thatanyone who has a brain like my
brain, they have the time toprepare on their own schedule.
And if I send an outline tothem a week ahead and they don't
want to look at it until theday before, that's totally fine,
that's their call, but I wantto make sure that they have the
ability to prep if they want to.
I was on a podcast recently andhadn't heard anything from the

(46:23):
podcaster and we were like twodays away from the podcast and I
was like man, I know thegeneral topic, but I don't know
what she's going to ask me.
She said she would send me thisand I didn't know what to do,
and so I feel kind of theopposite of Alban in that sense,
which really comes down to thefact that our personalities are
different and the way that weapproach things like that are

(46:44):
different, and so, as apodcaster who's working with all
different types of people, itcan be really helpful to know
the kind of person that's comingon your show.
Do they want to prep?
Do they want to prep?
Do they want that time or dothey not want that time?
So I think it can be helpful toknow your guests a little bit
like that so that you can tailorthe way you're preparing a
little bit for your guests.
Again, going back to what wewere talking about in the

(47:06):
beginning, to make your guestthe most comfortable.

Jordan (47:08):
And maybe even when you're booking the guest or
you're in that conversation withthem, seeing if they want to be
on the guest or they'repitching you, maybe you ask them
what's your prep style?
Like, do you want me to justlike throw some talking points
at you like the day before,because you know that's what's
comfortable for you, or do youwant like a week or even two
weeks to prepare for this?
Is that going to make you feel?

Priscilla (47:27):
more comfortable?
Yeah, I definitely think ifyou're listening to this and you
are guesting on podcasts, youcan be open about that too.
I was on a podcast a couplemonths ago and had a quick
conversation with the guybeforehand and he said I like to
not prep, so I'm not going tosend you an outline.
And I said, ooh, I work betterif I have a little bit of an
outline.

(47:48):
And he made me an outline.
He said OK, yeah, I'll pulltogether a little outline.
It won't be super detailed, butto give you an idea of how to
prep.
And I thought that was a reallygreat way to make me feel
comfortable coming on his show,because if he hadn't done that,
I would have been a little bitmore nervous.
It may have still gone well,but I wouldn't have felt as
comfortable, and the bestconversations come from

(48:09):
comfortable people.
And so he was like yeah, let memake you a little more
comfortable and give you anoutline.
And I thought that was a reallygreat thing for him.
But he wouldn't have known thatthat's how I prepare best if I
hadn't told him yeah, exactly.

Jordan (48:25):
So one of the things, priscilla, that we do, that I
don't recall ever having donethis for a podcast that I've
guested on, but something thatwe do for all of our guests and
maybe a little bit to theirchagrin.
I'm not sure that they enjoythis so much, but we schedule a
pre-interview soundcheck meetingand it's like a 15 minute thing
, yep.
So do you want to talk througha little bit why?

Priscilla (48:46):
we do this?
Yeah, so one of the firstpodcasts that I was on I had
never spoken to the personbefore, I didn't know them.
They'd reached out to me, theyasked me to was on.
I had never spoken to theperson before, I didn't know
them.
They'd reached out to me.
They asked me to come on.
I had never done a podcastbefore.
This was years ago, you know.
We got on, they startedrecording without really telling
me they were recording.
Oh yeah, and I felt very throwninto it without really knowing

(49:08):
what was going to happen and itwas not a comfortable experience
and I didn't feel really greatafterwards.
And the second podcastexperience I had, a few years
later, someone asked me to be ontheir show and they sent me an
outline very thin, just a couplelike topics that they wanted to
touch on.
And then they said I want to doa five minute soundcheck, like

(49:30):
the day before.
And I went oh gosh, okay,sounds scary and official.
Like the day before.
And I went, oh gosh, okay,sounds scary and official.
And I will tell you thatsoundcheck made a huge
difference in the way that Iapproached the episode, actually
recording for me personally,for Priscilla, and the way that
I function Okay.
So it's not every single person,but for me it really made a big

(49:51):
deal, and so I started doingthat in Happy to Help, because
the first guest that I had onHappy to Help was, again, sarah
Caminiti.
We were emailing and I just said, hey, would you rather just
jump on a call and we could talkthrough this?
And she said sure, and wejumped on a call and my nerves
went from like max to oh, wait aminute, this is just a fun

(50:12):
person I'm having a conversationwith, yeah, and I'm pressing
record, like it brought my as ahost nerves way down, wow.
So, as we started doing thosecheck-ins then more regularly
not for every single person whocomes on the show, but most of
the time, especially if I don'tknow you personally we'll do a
sound check, and it's for acouple of reasons.

(50:33):
One is because it allows me tobe familiar with the person I'm
talking to.
Yes, if it's a 10 minute soundcheck, it gives us a minute to
have a quick conversation aboutsomething that is not related to
the topic we're talking about.

Jordan (50:45):
Yeah, we had one guest come on and he was living in the
UK and I started talking aboutthis like 1990s UK archaeology
deep cut TV show and he easedright up and it turned out to be
this like hilarious thing thatwe connected on and then he was
immediately so excited to get inthe interview.

(51:06):
We weren't talking about thetopic that we were going to be
discussing on the podcast.
We were just connecting ashumans.

Priscilla (51:11):
Yeah exactly and you just get that familiarity.
Yeah, that then means tomorrowor next week or whenever it is
when we actually sit down torecord.
We already have a little bit ofhistory, so I kind of feel a
little bit more comfortable withyou already.
I also think that we weretalking about having like good
sound and good audio and all ofthat.
That is a big part of it too.
You, jordan, as the producer,get to then sit in on this

(51:34):
conversation and make sureeverything sounds good and is
their mic placed in the rightspot.
Do they have enough?
You know, soundproofing in theroom?
Should we have them pull in acouple blankets to have around
them to soak up some sound?
Like that kind of a thing canreally help.
Yeah.

Jordan (51:48):
That has saved our episodes a few times yeah.

Priscilla (51:51):
Especially if you're having people who aren't like
traditional podcasters coming onyour show that don't have that
set up already, it can be reallyhelpful.
And then it takes away from thestress of like, oh, let's do
that right before we actuallyrecord, and so now we're
scrambling to get that soundstuff in place and then we're
about to hit record.
Doing it the day beforehand for10 minutes gives you a minute

(52:13):
to be like okay, the audio isall good.
Now tomorrow when we sit downto actually record, we know
we're going to have good audio.
We know there's going to be alittle bit of familiarity
already between guest and hostand producer and then also it
gives a little bit of a buffertime for them to ask questions
about the recording.
If you need a little bit oftime to have those things sorted

(52:34):
out before you actually startrecording, yeah, and the other
part of this.

Jordan (52:38):
I was thinking about Alban, talking about the email
that he sends to guests, likethe guest prep, and he said,
like the most important thingyou can do is ask them do you
have a dedicated microphone, doyou have a microphone?
The number of people who dohave microphones.
And then we get into a soundcheck with them and they had set

(52:58):
their Samsung Q2U two feet awayfrom them and so it sounds like
they're speaking from theirlaptop and we have to tell them
like, hey, those microphones,you actually have to put it
right up to your mouth and speak.
And they're like oh, like this.
And then suddenly you can hearthem crystal clear.
It's like, wow, that wasamazing.
Or we had one guest who had ablue Yeti but the settings

(53:19):
weren't right and so we helpedher fine tune her blue Yeti so
it actually sounded good for herenvironment.
So you know, you can ask peoplehey, do you have a microphone?
They'll go, yeah.

Priscilla (53:39):
I have a microphone, but they might not know how to
use it, yeah, and so it givesyou a little bit of time,
separated from the actualinterview, to set that up, and
so that it's not like happeningin this rushed moment right
before you start talking, whichthen will inevitably lead into a
conversation that feels rushedand a little bit, you know,
uncomfortable at times.

Alban (53:50):
A side benefit that kind of occurred to me while you
spoke, priscilla, was I've hadtimes where I got much more
strict over.
You know, after editing andseeing how painful it could be,
that I would be comfortablesaying hey, do you have any
other headphones?
Maybe we could try to find someothers in the house, maybe you
could try this or that, and wewould cycle through trying to
get a little bit better audio.

(54:11):
The downside is, if you do that, you could end up spending your
first 15 minutes on soundcheckduring the recording.
Well, if they've only scheduled45 minutes and they have a hard
stop, your episode now is 30minutes of recording and you're
going to cut 10.
And so now you've got a verytight episode where you may not
get to a lot of the things youwant.

(54:31):
And so it's nice if you havethat ability and they're willing
to show up and do a quick soundcheck.
It might be a nice thing tooffer a lot of guests.

Jordan (54:42):
Yes, absolutely.
So.
I feel like this is aninformation dense episode, and
so I know that we all do thisfor a job.
You know, like, as Alban hadexplained before, he was able to
spend so much time prepping forinterviews because he gets paid
for it, like it's part of whatwe do, and so, for someone who
is a hobbyist podcaster, if theyonly have time to budget for

(55:06):
one thing, like if they werejust to take one small thing to
vastly improve the guestexperience on their podcast what
is something that they shoulddo?

Alban (55:16):
Do some prep so that you know I actually want to talk to
this guest.
I'm not just doing it becausethey seem like a warm body that
will show up and they dointerviews, Like find someone
that you're interested in Ithink the type of pitch
Priscilla's talking about.
I read this article.
I really liked it.
Here's an angle sending themthat is really really good and

(55:39):
you don't have to do the 40hours of prep that I talked
about.
That I did once.
But, like, putting in some prepon the front end will always
make the conversation better,Even if your conversation gets
to go somewhere new and excitingthan you ever expected.

Priscilla (55:54):
Yeah, I would say have an idea for where you want
the conversation to go somewherenew and exciting than you ever
expected.
Yeah, I would say have an ideafor where you want the
conversation to go and whatvalue you want to bring to your
listeners.
So that doesn't have to be afull outline and it doesn't have
to be 12 questions, but it canbe.
What do I want listeners toearn from this podcast, like,
what value do I want this tobring?
Knowing that and then knowingenough about your guest that you

(56:18):
can have an educatedconversation with them.
If you have 20 minutes toprepare for an episode, you can
spend 10 minutes on definingwhat you want this conversation
to look like and then you couldspend 10 minutes figuring out
who you're having on and whattheir experience is and reading
an article that they've done,and then you'll have a good
foundation there.
If you are a hobbyist and onlyhave, you know, 20 to 30 minutes

(56:41):
to prep for each episode,because I know people who do
their episodes during theirlunch break, like from their car
, and I'm thinking of thosepeople that are like, yeah, I
can spend two hours on anepisode, I can't spend 10 hours
on an episode.
So if that's all the time youhave.
That's going to set you up somuch more than spending no
minutes and going in completelycold.

Jordan (57:00):
It's funny because my answer to this actually changed
during our discussion.
So what I believe is like thesmallest thing that you can do
to improve your guest experienceis asking do you like to do
things on the fly or do you wantme to send you a prep email
early?
I think that that is going todictate how much work you have

(57:23):
to put into it, because if youhave a guest, that's like no man
I've talked about this stufffor 10 years.
I could talk about it all daylong.
Just throw it at me.
I'm totally cool with that.
Or if you have someone who's alittle bit more hesitant like
you know, I'd like to prepare myanswers earlier Like it's going
to make your guests feel somuch more comfortable about what
they're going into that youvalue them.
And then also you might getlucky and maybe you have someone

(57:46):
like a Kevin who can just likeshow up and be awesome and
that's your great episode, andthen you don't have to do as
much prep as you would have hadto do with somebody who needs a
little bit more coaxing, needs alittle bit more hand holding.

Alban (58:00):
I love Jordan that you asked for.
Hey, what's everyone's onetakeaway?
We all have at least four.

Jordan (58:07):
Well, you know what our listeners can choose, which one
they want to go with.
They want to go with All right.

Alban (58:16):
So Jordan, it's Sound Off the part of the show where
people write in and we talkabout it.
The top of the bit here saysthis is what's in the outline
Jordan forgot the dinosaur email, or did she?
And then you have like a purplesmirking emoji face with horns.
I think that's the officialname A devil.

(58:38):
What is this?

Jordan (58:39):
Okay.
So, as I had said in, like ourprevious episode of Buzzcast, if
you send us sound off responsesanywhere other than just the
fan mail link, I risk forgettingabout it, and this was one that
slipped through the cracks,even though it was like a very
good email that Priscilla hadactually forwarded to us,
because she's good at her job,she makes sure that everyone

(59:00):
gets the messages that they need.
It's just that Jordan did nottranslate it to the episode.
This is from Devin.
This was sent back in April11th and it says hello,
buzzsprout support.
I have an answer to the latestBuzzcast sound off and a few
corrections.
Can you please forward them tothe Buzzcast team?
Thank you.
So Devin said that he usesPocket Cast and the one RSS

(59:20):
related feature he liked themost is Podrolls, it says.
I also have corrections for thepost show.
What Colossal created are in noway dire wolves.
They are gray wolves with 20dire wolf gene edits and with
some dire wolf traits.
As for T-Rexes, evidence showsthat they were probably both
predators and scavengers and,according to the website of the

(59:43):
American Museum of NaturalHistory, while juvenile T-Rexes
likely had feathers, it isunlikely that adult
Tyrannosaurus Rexes actually hadfeathers.
It is unlikely that adultTyrannosaurus Rexes actually had
feathers.
Sorry, jordan.

Alban (59:52):
Let's go Devin.

Jordan (59:53):
Boo Devin Good Womp womp .

Alban (59:56):
Womp, womp.
I feel like I don't remember.
I want to go back and read thetranscript, but I feel like I
was getting corrected on air andDevin came in dropping the
knowledge bombs, picking me up.

Jordan (01:00:09):
I was so certain that I was correct on this.
Come on.

Alban (01:00:15):
One workaround, priscilla , that I've seen.
I think Kate did this.
She got an email that was soundoff and instead of forwarding
it to us because she knows thatour rule is we only do the stuff
that's sent in through fan mailshe just went and she texted
the content.
She copy and pasted it andtexted it in herself, and so I

(01:00:36):
was like, oh, I'm noticing, thisis from Jacksonville, florida,
and they've also sent inmultiple before.
It's Kate taking people'semails, getting them into the
proper channel.

Priscilla (01:00:46):
So that is so smart's innovation, and that's Kate for
you that makes total sense thatshe's like how can I solve this
for this podcaster and makesure that it gets talked about?
Because what I do is I take itand I put it in Basecamp and
then you guys have access to it.
But you're right, it's notcoming through the channel that
you expect and so when you lookfor sound off, you're not

(01:01:08):
looking at that post in Basecamp.
But yeah, but Kate knows whatshe's doing.
That is a great strategy.
Okay, now I'm going to have tostart doing that.
Go Kate, go Kate.
Okay.
So Derek from IntentionalTeaching wrote in and he said
Instagram used to be so greatwhen it was just photo centered.
I'm not here for the videos andif you don't make videos, then
no one will see your stuff.

(01:01:28):
I've leaned back into Flickr,since it's so old school Just
photos, nothing but photos.
Flickr is a deep cut.
It is.
I never used Flickr.
I remember I had friends thatused Flickr and I have always
loved photos.
So I can agree with Derek onthis.
There is a place for video, forsure, but I love.
When I first started usingInstagram, I signed up for it

(01:01:50):
before I even knew that it was aphoto sharing app.
I thought it was just editing.
Yeah, I think I started usingInstagram in like early 2012.
I think I was in the first sixmonths of Instagram users and I
told everyone about it becauseit was such a cool photo editing
platform.
And even now when I post things, I just want to post nice,

(01:02:11):
pretty pictures for people tolook at.
I am not trying to create thenext funny video If no one knows
what we're talking about.

Jordan (01:02:18):
They're like this has nothing to do with podcasting,
it kind of does.
It's tying into a few episodesago where Alban was talking
about video podcasting and howlike can we just keep the thing?
The original thing, LikeInstagram, used to be photos.
Now it's got videos and reelsand so on.

Alban (01:02:34):
Yeah, Twitter used to be text and then added images and
now it's videos and reels andeverything kind of moves more
and more.
Facebook used to be aboutfriends and family, then it was
about everybody.
Now it's about videos and reels, like we don't need everything
to degrade into video.
So thanks for the message.
Our big question this week waswe were looking for strange

(01:02:55):
marketing tactics and thatpeople have tried to actually
work and we got four and they'reall different and they're
unique and I love them.
So thank you to everybody whowrote in.
First was from Scott of theTalk With History podcast.
A surprisingly good marketingstrategy is writing your podcast
name in your car's back window.
Smart On road trips we get agood number of folks reaching

(01:03:19):
out saying they saw it on ourcar and locally it started
conversations in the parking lotor with other parents.
Scott, awesome idea If I wasdriving on a long drive and you
know how, like you get paired upwith people on the highway.
Yeah, we were like oh we werejust we passed that car and then
we got off and now we're backon and we see him again and you
saw four times like talk withhistory.

(01:03:40):
You're like I'm bored.
Let's check out this randompodcast.
I totally see it working, Ilove it and it's cool to hear
that it's actually worked.

Jordan (01:03:49):
But you got to make sure that you're a nice driver
though, because if you cutsomeone off and they get mad,
they're going to go leave a onestar review and say this person
sucks.

Alban (01:03:57):
Podcast is bad, Driving's worse.

Well, and they might not just leave a bad review.
They might actually take apicture of your car and then use
the QR code that you've put onyour window and email Buzzsprout
support and say hey, thispodcaster is bad at driving,
they shouldn't have a podcast.
That's happened before.

Alban (01:04:16):
Was it Scott?

I don't know, it was a long time ago, but just be
careful.
If you're going to put yourname of your podcast in your
window.
You want to make sure you'redriving in a way.

Alban (01:04:27):
That's a good representation we got to go back
and find this email.
So this is real, though thishas happened.
Want to make sure you'redriving in a way that's a good
representation of your body.
Oh my gosh, we got to go backand find this email.
So this is real, though thishas happened.

It is real.
Someone emailed us in supportWow, and they said this is a bad
driver.

Alban (01:04:42):
Yeah, that's rough.
I will be so happy if it'sScott.

Jordan (01:04:51):
Hey, editing George is reporting that we did in fact
find the road rage email and itwas not Scott, though that would
have been really funny if itwas.
And then Matthew from Girl DadNation said Creative marketing
strategies.
I had a short film featured ina dad film festival the past
three years Great way to promotemy Girl Dad Nation podcast and
this year's film was nominatedfor an award and I had coloring

(01:05:12):
pages with my logo given out atthe festival.
That's awesome, that's reallycool.
Yeah, I think that's like avery hard marketing strategy is
to make like a short film.
That's a lot of work.

Talk about prep and hours of prep going into that
yeah.

Jordan (01:05:28):
But if you already have one up your sleeve like, go for
it, get the most out of it.

Okay.
So Steve Stewart from SteveStewart Podcast Productions
wrote in and he said my weirdgrowth hack from the past isn't
all that strange, but I rarelyever seen it done.
For April Fool's Day, 2014,.
I took over hosting duties forthree of my peers' shows Whoa.
I produced each episode in theoriginal show's format,
including getting a co-host andguest for the Stacking Benjamin

(01:05:54):
show and interviewing JaredEasley for his Starve the Doubts
podcast.
As a result, my own podcastgrew by 20% over the next few
weeks and I maintained about 10%of that growth in the months
following.
That said, I would notrecommend doing multiple
podcasts like this.

Alban (01:06:11):
It nearly killed me.
Yeah, steve, super impressiveidea and it's cool to hear that
your show grew 10% from AprilFool's Day and our last answer
came in just today.
I think Jacob from Success is aMyth wrote in and said the
craziest podcast marketingstrategy that's actually worked
for me is to leave unhingedcomments on viral posts on

(01:06:32):
social media.
It sparks curiosity in peoplewho go there just to read the
comments.

Jacob, jacob, this is kind of similar to the podcast
in the window.
Be careful.

Alban (01:06:45):
I was like, okay, this is great.
So I went and I looked up Jacob.
I watched stuff about theSuccess is a Myth podcast, which
he does a lot of really coolshort form video, for Jacob
looks like a video producer andvery, very good video producer,
and now is doing this podcast,so it's all very well done.
I could not find a singleunhinged comment, though.

(01:07:08):
So Jacob, fan of the show, nowgreat work on social media.
Will you please send us some ofthese unhinged comments?
We need some examples of likewhat do you, how unhinged do you
have to be to get peopleinterested and yet not, you know
, be a detriment for your show.
So we need we need some proofhere.

Jordan (01:07:26):
Yeah, and what some people consider unhinged, others
might consider hinged right.

So, priscilla, since you are guesting with us today,
do you have a question you'dlike to ask for SoundOff?
Yes, I do.
I would love to know what tipdo you have for preparing a
guest for an interview?
I think it's clear from thisconversation that Alban and I
have slightly differentstrategies because we prepare
differently, and so I'd beinterested to hear from other
people who prepare for podcastsin their own way what tips they

(01:08:02):
have and bonus points if you'vegot a little story there,
because I know a lot of thesetips come from.

Alban (01:08:04):
something went wrong, something went well, give us a
little bit of background to whyyou're giving us that tip.

Jordan (01:08:08):
A short story.
Don't make me have to do somemore editing work on a response.
All right, so to have yourresponse featured on our next
episode, be sure to tap theTexas show link in the show
notes to send it in.
And, as always, thanks forlistening and keep podcasting.

Alban (01:08:30):
All right, jordan, priscilla, now that I've got you
both here, I need some new TVrecommendations, both of you,
you guys watch a lot of showsyou regularly post in the
company software.
You're like, oh, here's whatI'm watching now.
And we recently went through.
We started cutting out oldsubscriptions that we're not
watching shows on those anymore,so we need some new

(01:08:51):
recommendations.
What do you guys got?

All right.
Well, what subscription servicedo you have?

Alban (01:08:55):
Well, everything's still active for like four days so if
you've got something you're likeoh, you've got to watch this
and it's only available on Hulumax plus or whatever.
Then, like, we got four days.

Jordan (01:09:07):
It's funny Cause like Priscilla and I, I think we have
our own little television cluband it's just like population
two, like we'll watch somethingand then call each other and
talk for like half an hour.

We really want people to join our club, but no one
comes and joins us.
No one comes and joins us.

Alban (01:09:25):
All right, Well, welcome back to Priscilla and Jordan's
television club Today I've gotthe two hosts of the club Tell
us what to watch.

Jordan (01:09:33):
Okay, I mean first off, we have to address the Traitors.
Alban, have you watched theTraitors?

Alban (01:09:39):
No, what is the Traitors?

Jordan (01:09:41):
This is on Peacock and it is an incredible reality
competition show.
That's a little bit like murdermystery theater meets I don't
know, like mafia game with somehousewives sprinkled in.

Alban (01:09:57):
Oh, wait, wait, wait.
Is this traitor as in like, asin Benedict Arnold, turncoat
traitor.

Jordan (01:10:03):
Yes, not.

Alban (01:10:03):
the traitor is like out like running a country store
traitor.

Yeah, yeah.
So the two sentence premise ofthis show is that a bunch of
kind of known reality stars getput into a castle in Scotland
and two or three of them aretraitors and the rest of them
are faithfuls, and the faithfulstry to vote out the traitors
and they complete challenges.
Oh it's mafia.
And it's exactly like mafia andit's fantastic Alania.

(01:10:31):
And it's fantastic.
Alan Cumming hosts it.
He's so good, it's super camp.
It's just a really, really funwatch.
It is fun.
If you like reality shows ormurder mysteries, then you'll
really like it, or like murderseries.
If you're looking for somethingscripted, I just watched the
Residence on Netflix, which wasa really fun watch.

(01:10:53):
It's kind of like a whodunitthat happens in the White House
and you meet all these peoplewho work in the White House.
I want to say it's like nine or10 episodes.
It's really well done.

Alban (01:11:04):
Yeah, I don't like getting into politics though.

It's not political at all.
It's very light and easy towatch.
That's on my list too, but thething I like about it is that
it's not political at all.
It's very light and easy towatch.
That's on my list too, but thething I like about it is that
it's written.
It feels like it's written in away that allows you to just
watch one episode at a time andnot feel like you have to binge
it so many shows these days thatare written for streaming
services are writtenspecifically to have the payoff

(01:11:28):
before episodes in, so that youfeel like you have to binge four
episodes in order to get thepayoff.
Be four episodes in, so thatyou feel like you have to binge
four episodes in order to getthe payoff, and so this is
really nice, because it doesn't.
It's not written like that.
So there's payoff at the end ofevery episode and then there's
like a little teaser for thenext one so that you want to
watch the next one.
But I was able to consume oneepisode at a time without
feeling like I have to watch thefirst 10 minutes of the next

(01:11:48):
episode before I can turn thisoff, and I really appreciated
that kind of more traditionalwriting of television.
So the Residence on Netflix isreally fun.

Alban (01:11:57):
You know that was one of the great things about the old,
like sitcoms, which were made tofit into like 30 minute slots
in their 23 minutes.
Yeah, because they were allself-contained.
You could watch any Seinfeldepisode out of order and you
generally know the charactersand even if there is some
through line that's a coupleepisodes long, you really don't

(01:12:18):
need to watch the other ones.
You kind of get it, you get itand the payoff always is at the
end and you're done.

I want to clarify.
What I mean is not just thateach episode is an individual
story.
There is an arc and you need towatch it from the beginning,
but it wraps up enough for youat the end of an episode that
you don't feel like you have tokeep.
It's not like they leave you ona cliffhanger every single
episode, which I think is what alot of television does these
days for streamers.

Alban (01:12:46):
Some of them, they do it at the end of the season and
you're like, oh, what's going tohappen?
And they're like, oh, by theway, we weren't renewed by
Netflix.

And then you're like what is going on, or they're
like you have to wait two yearsbefore we're going to tell you
what happened, and by the timethose two years have gone by, I
almost don't care.
Cough severance cough.

Alban (01:13:02):
I was just thinking severance.
Jordan and I did watchseverance and so we talked about
it.
But then when we, when seasontwo came out, we're both like
trying to remember could notwhat happened in the first one.
And then I'm like, oh yeah,this is the main premise.
And then jordan's like well,what about the goats?
And I'm like goats, I don'tremember goats.

Jordan (01:13:21):
What about the goats?
We gotta know about the goats.
Yeah, and Alban, you wantrecommendations?
Speaking of severance, if youlike severance, you need to
watch Silo.
It is based on the Wool series,or I guess he retitled it to
the Silo series, but it wasoriginally called like it was.

Alban (01:13:39):
Wool Wool was the first book.
Yeah.

Jordan (01:13:41):
Yeah, and it's a really good read.
I remember it being like aquick read, even though I think
it is like a longer book.
It's one of those likebingeable sort of things.
So my husband and I were soexcited when Silo came out and
they have done such a greatservice to that story and it is
just very post-apocalypticsci-fi, adventurous and like

(01:14:02):
dramatic at the same time.
You don't really know what'sgoing on.
It feels very much like that.
It has the same tension thatSeverance has.
That makes it so compelling.
So you have to watch Silo.
It is so good.

Alban (01:14:13):
Okay, well, we got some good recommendations Traders,
which is not about trading posts, it's about backstabbing.
You had another one, silo, andthen Priscilla said there's the
other one on Netflix, about-.

The Residence, the Residence, yeah.

Alban (01:14:27):
So three great shows.

Jordan (01:14:28):
Yeah, yeah residence.

Alban (01:14:31):
Yeah.
So three great shows, yeah,yeah.
And I want to know when this isgoing to be a podcast.
So if other people areinterested in this, you want
Priscilla and Jordan to startthe movie club and you want to
be a part of the movie club?
Smash that text button, send ina message.
Let us know.
Do you want this show?

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