Five tips for getting the best podcast interview
The big day has come! You decided that your podcast has grown large enough to invite someone else as a guest speaker. Maybe you’re a fan of Joe Rogan podcasts and have fallen in love with one of his interview episodes. So, at last, you made your mind to have a podcast interview on your show! Great! But how should you get prepared?
Yes, we know it is hard to do an interview, especially if it’s one of your first times and you’re not sure how to do it. That is why we have singled out some of the most helpful tips to make your podcast interview better.
So, without further adieu, here are the five essential tips to follow:
- Research your guest
First of all, decide on who you want your guest to be. Don’t just call anyone. Try to find a person whom you genuinely admire and who can offer quality content to your listeners.
Yes, it might be harder to convince a more popular blogger or professional to show up on your not that famous podcast, but it is certainly worth the try.
Once you have shortlisted your guest candidates, it is time to research a little more about them. It’s unnecessary to learn by heart all the information you find online about the person, but minimal research is still a must. If you don’t, you will appear rude and disrespectful during the podcast.
- Have a pre-interview chat
Once your guest has accepted your invitation and is in your studio ready to start, make sure you don’t jump into the topic right away. We know you have prepared some impactful interview questions, but before you start asking them, pause for a little bit.
You need to warm your guest up at least a little before you both start the interview. Have a small chat, drink a coffee together or do any other activity that will break the tension.
This way, you will build more informal relationships with your interviewee, and the primary interview will go more smoothly.
- Don’t make it too long
One of the biggest mistakes podcasters make is assuming that 30 minutes is too much time. Trust us; once you get into the podcast, you’ll wish you had at least a few minutes more to cover it all.
So don’t give your audience a dull, 5 minutes overview of your guest’s background and career. Jump straight to the topic and make your podcast move fast.
If you need to ask your guest to move on to the next question, do it. Sometimes people get caught up in one topic, and you need to push them a little to move forward.
- Remove all the distracting voices
If you want to get the most out of your podcast, you need to ensure the highest quality possible. So while recording, remove all the unnecessary and disturbing voices.
To do so, make sure you have a decent audio recording studio that more or less reduces the background noise. The technology you’re using is also important. It might be better if you could invest a little in your mic, it would certainly pay off!
However, if you’re on a budget, you can get the quality of professionally post-processed audio in just a click. Some audio content creation platforms, like Podcastle, make the audio recording and editing beginner-friendly and straightforward.
You can even use their speech-to-text tool to get the automatic transcription of your interview.
- Record with separate tracks
Finally, another great tip to improve your podcast quality is to record with separate tracks. Yes, it is pretty obvious, but for beginners who are doing mainly online interviews with Zoom or Google Hangout because they do not have professional studios, it is a little tricky. However, here too, you can use Podcastle to record your voice and your interviewee’s voice separately automatically.
Bonus tip
- Stay confident and go with the flow.
Don’t force it. Just stay loose and let the conversation take its flow. It is okay if you don’t have everything prepared and planned before the interview. All you need is a good understanding of the topic, confidence, a good mood, and the willingness to have a great conversation!
Good luck, podcasters!