Tips for Nailing Your Next Interview

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Nervous to start interviewing guests on your podcast? Join Priscilla and me as we share simple and reliable interview strategies that give you the confidence to prepare for, navigate, and execute a great guest interview!

If you have questions about preparing for your next interview, email us at [e-mail].

Have a topic or question we should address on a future episode? Text us or email the Buzzsprout Podcaster Success Team at [e-mail]

Keep podcasting!

Episode Transcript

Cara Pacetti (00:00):
Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you
by the people at Buzzsprout.
I'm your host, Cara Pacetti,and I'm bringing you the best
tips and strategies to keep youpodcasting with confidence.
The topic we're covering forthis episode was actually
inspired by a podcasting Q&Aepisode that we released

(00:21):
recently, where we were talkingall about salvaging an episode
because the interview wentwrong.
And while that's great andthose tips are wonderful, and we
want to salvage bad episodes,what we really want to do is
nail the recording the firsttime.
And so that's what we're goingto focus on today.
So I've asked Priscilla to joinme in answering this question.
Priscilla is the head of ourpodcaster success team here at

(00:44):
Buzzsprout, and she has beenhosting her own podcast for the
last two years.
I'm inspired by her becauseshe's really mastered the art of
interviewing guests.
She does a really great job ofgetting pertinent information to
her listeners while alsokeeping the interviews not only
conversational, but alsoentertaining.
So, Priscilla, thank you somuch for being here with me

(01:06):
today.

Priscilla Brooke (01:06):
Thanks for having me, Cara.
I'm really excited.
If you had told me a year and ahalf ago that I would feel
confident doing interviews, Iwould have told you absolutely
not.
Your crazy interviews scare meso much.
But I do feel like in the lastcouple of years, getting in the
repetition of doing them, I feela lot more comfortable doing
them.
So I'm excited to talk aboutsome of the things that I do and
some of the things that, youknow, we recommend our

(01:29):
podcasters do.

Cara Pacetti (01:30):
I would say that you are not alone in that.
I think a lot of podcastersfeel that way, me included, when
I first started podcasting Q&A.
So let's dive into some of thetips that we've come up with.
The first step in nailing yourinterview honestly occurs before
the mic is ever turned on.
So you want to be reallyintentional about how you are
prepping for your interview.

(01:51):
And to do that, I always say tostart at the end and kind of
work backwards.
And what I mean by that isstart with the goal.
What is the goal of theepisode?
What is the outcome that youwant?
And what do you want yourlisteners to know, experience,
feel at the end of your episode?
So working backwards fromthere, then you want to think of

(02:12):
questions that would lead tothat goal.
And all of that has to takeplace before you're ever face to
face with your guest.

Priscilla Brooke (02:20):
Yeah, I think that's a really good way to
approach it.
I would say don't be afraid todo your research.
This doesn't mean you have tospend eight hours researching
every little thing about a guestbefore you sit down and
interview them, but have a goodidea about who it is that you're
about to talk to.
Listen to other podcaststhey've done, read articles
they've written.

(02:40):
If they have a book, read thebook, look at their website, get
familiar enough with them so itdoesn't feel like you're
meeting them for the first timewhen you sit down to record with
them.
And so then you can startputting your questions together
and you can look for questionsthat are not going to be the
same questions that everyoneasks them, but you can look for
those places where you can askthe question that maybe they
don't answer all the time.

Cara Pacetti (03:01):
That's a really great point, Priscilla, because
if you are doing the researchand you're listening to other
episodes, maybe that they'vebeen featured on, I guarantee
some of those niche questionswill pop up.
Another benefit of doing yourresearch is that going into an
interview, your guest is thengoing to feel comfortable
knowing this host did theresearch.

(03:22):
And so I know that I can answerthese questions honestly and I
can feel comfortable knowingthat they know my background.

Priscilla Brooke (03:28):
Well, and one of the things you're doing as
the interviewer, your job is tomake your guest feel at ease.
And so you just mentioned it,sending them the questions ahead
of time.
That allows them to prepare.
Again, it doesn't mean you haveto send it to them a week out,
but maybe the day before yousend them their questions so
they have an idea of where youwant the conversation to go.
And then another level to thatis when you get in the recording

(03:50):
space with them.
So whether it's through, youknow, an online recording
situation like Riverside or ifit's in the room with them, take
a few minutes to just casuallyget to know them before you
start recording and give sometime to bring those nerves down
and to keep things, you know,casual and fun.
And then that'll makeeverything a lot more
comfortable when you're actuallygetting into the recording and

(04:13):
the interview.
The last thing that I thinkabout when I'm in that
preparation stage is how am Igonna transition between
questions?
And so I try not to get toodown in the nitty-gritty of how
I'm gonna say everything.
Sometimes in my script, I'llgive myself some simple
transitions between segments orbetween questions, just so that

(04:37):
if in the moment I can't come upwith a good transition, I can
look at my cheat sheet and myoutline and use that as a way to
get through from question toquestion.
So that's something that helpsme that might be helpful for
someone who's nervous about aninterview.

Cara Pacetti (04:53):
That is such great advice.
And especially when thosenerves kick in, you could have
all the best laid-out plans inthe world and then your mind
just goes blank.
And so having that little cheatsheet would be so helpful.
All right, I want to move on toduring the interview.
So the questions that you'reasking.
One piece of advice is to useopen-ended questions.

(05:14):
And so you don't want to answerthe question for your guest.
You want to let them shine.
So I want to give an example ofthis.
So I'm gonna use this question.
Was it hard to stay motivatedor were you already really
disciplined?
Do you see how that kind ofcuts off the answer?
It doesn't really give theguest the opportunity to answer.

(05:35):
Another way to phrase this tomake it open-ended, would be to
say, what helped you staymotivated through that process?
Then crickets.
Let it be silent.
Let that guest respond.
Silence is going to be filled,and you kind of have the upper
hand as the host or theinterviewer to let your guest

(05:56):
fill it with their answer.
If you're just creating scriptsfor the first time and you kind
of don't know where to start,think about asking questions
that begin with how, what, orwhy.
You want to invoke feeling.
And so these questions allowyour guest the ability to
storytell and to really keepthat human element involved in

(06:17):
your interview and in theirresponses.

Priscilla Brooke (06:20):
Yeah, that's really good.
I also think AI can be reallyhelpful in this realm of
creating questions.
Sometimes you'll run into aroadblock and you don't know
what other questions to ask, oryou've got a list of 10
questions and you don't know ifthere are any gaps that you're
missing.
I would say once you've writtenyour questions out, send them

(06:40):
over to Chat GPT and ask for anyareas where there might be
missing information or anyquestions that aren't included
that could be included.
Tell them about the episodethat you're creating and what
your goals are with the episode.
And you don't have to taketheir questions and use them
word for word, but you can takethose questions and let them

(07:00):
inspire other questions for you.
It can be a really coolbrainstorming tool.
And so if you're not using it,this is a really cool way to
start playing around with AI andhelp let it help you come up
with some questions.

Cara Pacetti (07:14):
I love that idea.
Use the tools that are outthere.
Make this process a littleeasier on yourself.
So we've walked through thepreparation, we've walked
through kind of outlining yourquestions and what you're going
to be asking.
The last piece involves theactual recording.
So you are in the interviewwith your guest.
My advice here is to keep itconversational.
When I was first starting withpodcasting Q&A, Priscilla

(07:37):
actually gave me the advice ofyou're a real human talking to a
real human.
And it sounds so simple, but itwas exactly the advice that I
needed because whether you areinterviewing the guest that
you've always dreamed ofinterviewing and their success
list is miles long, at the endof the day, you're a human and

(07:57):
they're a human.
And so just talk to them, havea conversation.

Priscilla Brooke (08:01):
I really think it's so important to remember
the humanity.
You can get so caught up inthe, oh, this person is this
huge name author, and I'm superintimidated to talk to them.
Just remember they're also justa regular person.
You know, you are also verycool and you have a podcast and
you're bringing them on, whichmakes you a cool person too.
I think there's something to besaid about keeping the human

(08:24):
connection there.
It'll make the conversation waymore listenable, and it will
also make it more fun for you ifyou remember that humanity.

Cara Pacetti (08:32):
Absolutely.
And that kind of leads into myother point of active listening.
So you've worked so hard tocreate a script, you've outlined
these questions, but the worstthing that you can do in the
interview is to be staring atyour guest, thinking of your
next question.
You want to practice reallylistening to what they have to

(08:54):
say and offering a genuineresponse.
If you have formulated yourquestions correctly, if your
guest is kind of aware of thegoal of the end of the episode,
then hopefully if you jump on aconversation that wasn't
necessarily scripted, it willstill end up in the same way.
You're not going to go down arabbit hole.
But if you do see anopportunity to kind of engage in

(09:15):
a conversation because you werelistening to what the guest was
saying, go for it.
That it that makes it soauthentic.
And again, like Priscilla said,listeners appreciate that.
They can relate to that.

Priscilla Brooke (09:26):
Well, and I have this analogy for it, okay?
Because I think that's such agood thing, it's maybe the most
important thing about having agood, successful interview is
letting things go where they'regonna go.
And so the analogy I have is,you know, you go on vacation.
The best vacations you go onare the ones where you planned

(09:47):
what you're gonna do.
You have your itinerary down,you know what restaurants are
available, you know what toursyou want to do, but then in the
moment you learn something,you're on the vacation, you
learn something about this coolrestaurant around the corner.
Well, what are you gonna do?
You're gonna go to that coolrestaurant, or are you gonna
say, no, we can't go to thatrestaurant because I already
made a reservation at this otherrestaurant?
No, you're gonna go becausethat is the cool in-the-moment

(10:11):
thing that a local told you togo to.
And so there's a beauty inbeing prepared, but not holding
yourself so tightly to theoutline that you've written and
going, hey, if the conversationgoes somewhere else, I'm gonna
follow that.
Now, if the conversation startsto veer way off course and it's
no longer gonna get me to mygoals, I'm gonna bring it back

(10:32):
to the outline.
But being able to navigate thatin the moment, that's the
hardest part of an interview.
And it is one of the mostimportant parts, but it's
totally doable and it'ssomething you'll get better at
every time you interview anotherperson.

Cara Pacetti (10:46):
Thank you, Priscilla.
You've offered some reallygreat tips here today.
And so I know these are gonnabe useful for not only new
podcasters who are maybe alittle nervous to go forward
with an interview they've beenplanning, and even experienced
podcasters who just want torefine their skills and maybe
try a new way.
And so I really appreciate yousharing your expertise that
you've learned along the way.

(11:07):
If you are planning an upcominginterview and you have
questions that you'd like thepodcaster success team to help
you answer, we'd love to dothat.
You can reach us by emailing usat support at buzzsprout.com.
If you have a question thatyou'd like us to focus on on a
future podcasting Q&A episode,click the send us a text link in
the show notes, and we canfeature that on one of our

(11:27):
upcoming episodes.
Be sure to join us every Mondayto kickstart your week.
Thank you so much forlistening.
And as always, keep podcasting.