Salvaging a Bad Podcast Interview

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Ever play back an interview and feel your stomach drop? We’ve been there. This week, we tackle the exact moment a conversation misses the mark and walk through practical ways to turn a messy interview into a clean, confident episode your audience will actually love. Plus a teaser for next week’s episode.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Podcasting QA, brought to you by

(00:02):
the people at Buzz Sprout.
I'm your host, Kara Passetti,and I'm bringing you the best
tips and strategies to keep youpodcasting with confidence.
Today's episode of Podcasting QAis an exciting one because we
are answering another fan mailthat we have received from a

(00:24):
real podcasting QA listener.
So thank you so much for sendingyour fan mail.
As we get them, I try to recordan episode answering the
question super quickly so I canget the answer back to you.
And so we received this one, Ibelieve it was a couple of weeks
ago, from Fort Collins,Colorado.
And I'm going to read the fanmail message.

(00:45):
It says, Hi, what if I did aninterview and I feel I didn't do
a good job at bringing outuseful info from the guest?
How can I salvage thisrecording?
So I've definitely seen thishappen before, and it's
incredibly frustrating.
Depending on the circumstances,maybe you were nervous, maybe
your guest was nervous, maybe itwas just an off day, but you

(01:08):
work through recording yourepisode only to export the file
and listen and think, oh, Icould have done that
differently.
And it's hard because now theinterview is done.
Maybe it's been a day or two andyou're listening to this and you
just don't know what is the nextstep.
Do we re-record?
Can we salvage this?

(01:29):
First and foremost, review thecontent and see what can be
used.
So as you're listening back, youmay realize there's more that is
worth saving than you originallythought.
And the cool part is this is notlive, it is a recorded episode.
So you can actually take clipsfrom your interview and
incorporate them into a brandnew episode where you, as the

(01:53):
interviewer for the originalepisode, are now taking the seat
of more of a narrator and kindof bouncing back and forth
between those interview clips,and you can kind of describe or
narrate what was going on, maybesome context around each answer.
And so that is one way to takethat content, that's great

(02:17):
content, but forming it in a waythat you can create or shape the
outcome.
So now you are a solo podcasthost and you are featuring an
interview from a previousepisode.
Another option, you could offerthis episode as a bonus episode.
This is a new episode with a newintention.

(02:37):
So what maybe felt like amistake because it's going
against what you originallyplanned has actually now shifted
to a creative episode that youare offering as a bonus.
And it's going to be new foryour listeners and new for you.
So if you shape it in a way thatallows the episode to feel
exclusive because it is, it'sunique, then that will give you

(02:59):
more confidence when releasingthis episode and you can walk
into it knowing that this iscreative, this is intentional,
and this is not just a mistake.
Now, if you find that theepisode is just not salvageable,
there's just no redeemingqualities in this recording,
that's okay too, because thatdoes happen.
And if you find yourself in thatsituation, my recommendation is

(03:22):
to make the call quickly.
And when you're communicatingwith your guest, make sure
you're taking ownership of whythe interview went the way it
did.
The last thing you want to do isapproach a guest that took time
to be a part of your podcast andthen shift the blame fully to
them for the outcome.
You, as the podcast host, knewthe intention of the episode,

(03:44):
knew how you wanted it to turnout.
And when that doesn't happen,there's a little bit of
ownership there.
And so you want to make surethat you are communicating that,
that you're owning it, and thatyou're owning the next steps
forward and how to handle it.
My best piece of advice here isjust be honest and transparent
with your guest and let themknow that unfortunately, if they

(04:06):
are not able to re-record thistime, it's not likely that the
episode is going to go live atall.
It will end up just being ascrapped episode.
And of course, that is not greatnews for you.
It's not great news for yourguest.
But you'd rather let them knowup front your plan and what
you're gonna do with thisepisode, because the last thing

(04:28):
that you want to happen is toinvite a guest onto your
podcast, decide to scrap theinterview without communicating
that to your guest.
And then your guest is just leftthere waiting for this episode
uh to be released.
And if your guest is somebodywho is very well known or maybe
has a very busy schedule, andhonestly, it was a great

(04:51):
opportunity to get them there inthe first place.
You need to be flexible.
When you are asking for theirtime again, you will have to
accept that they'll be able tomeet when they can.
And so flexibility is going tobe key here as well.
And then this time comeprepared.
Make sure you're communicatingwith your guest what the new
intention is of this episode sothat they know.

(05:14):
Because sometimes open-endedquestions are wonderful for
interviews, but they can leaddown a rabbit hole that wasn't
intended.
So if you can communicate in thebeginning, hey, my takeaways for
this episode is that we aregoing to come out with XYZ and
that our listeners willhopefully feel or learn or

(05:37):
experience XYZ.
That allows you and your gueststo be on the same page.
And so your questions and youranswers will all be tailored
towards that common goal.
And so you want to comeprepared.
And so that's gonna, of course,take some intentionality on your
end to prepare the questions inthat way and also communicate

(05:57):
that with your guest early.
But in this case, since it is are-recording, another piece of
advice is to go ahead and sendthe questions prior to the
interview.
That way, your guest can reviewthem and kind of work through
their answers on their end aswell.
And so depending on why you feelthat your episode was not

(06:19):
salvageable, don't write it offas a lost cause.
Um, if you think that it's notsalvageable, it might be.
You just need to take some time,walk through these different
ways of viewing it.
And if you have to re-record,that will be totally fine.
A huge part of podcasting istrial and error and learning
along the way.
So there are many times thatwe've recorded something and

(06:42):
then we just had to go back anddo it again because we learned
from our mistakes the firsttime.
Now, while this episode wasfocusing primarily on salvaging
an episode because the contentwas not right.
So the interview went south.
We all know there are otherreasons why an episode may not
get released.
And a big one is audio quality.

(07:04):
And while I have other episodesthat explain how to take steps
before the recording or evenduring the recording so that you
can avoid those audio mishaps,what happens if the recording is
over and you are left with lessthan great audio?
So stick around next week forpart two because I am going to

(07:27):
go through some of those audiomishaps that happen and you
don't realize it until you arelistening back to the episode.
That episode will go live nextMonday.
So be sure to join us tokickstart your week.
I hope this episode was helpfulfor you today.
For my listener from FortCollins, Colorado, I'd love to

(07:47):
hear from you if you want to letme know what you decided to do.
Did you rerecord?
Did any of this help you toredeem that episode?
I'd love to hear how it allplayed out.
Um, you can reach out to me inthe support inbox at support at
buzzsprout.com.
Any of my listeners, if you havequestions, reach out to us at
any time on the PodcasterSuccess team.

(08:08):
We are eager to help you.
If you have a question you'dlike answered on a future
podcasting QA episode, justclick the send us a text link in
the show notes.
This is how this questionreached me, and I was happy to
answer it.
And so I'm happy to answer yourquestions as well.
Be sure to join us every Mondayto kickstart your week.
Thank you so much for listening.
And as always, keep podcasting.