How To Prepare Podcast Guests for Amazing Interviews

Summary

Buzzcast Podcast Summary

Episode: How To Prepare Podcast Guests for Amazing Interviews
Date: May 9, 2025
Host(s): Jordan Harbinger, Albin, Priscilla (guest host, Head of Podcaster Success at Buzzsprout)

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Episode Overview

This Buzzcast episode dives into the art and process of preparing podcast guests to deliver engaging, comfortable, and high-value interviews. The team explores their personal journeys with podcasting anxiety and imposter syndrome, practical guest prep techniques, balancing the need for prep with spontaneity, and actionable strategies to enhance both host and guest experience. Listeners get rich, hands-on advice, memorable anecdotes, and actionable takeaways for making guest interviews seamless and impactful—whether you’re a seasoned podcaster or just starting out.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Overcoming Podcasting Nerves & Imposter Syndrome

[00:35–07:19]

• Priscilla reflects on moving from supporting podcasters behind the scenes to hosting her own show, confronting perfectionism, vulnerability, and feeling her insights weren’t valuable.

  • “There was an aspect of... letting go of that hyper perfection aspect and then also just sharing my thoughts, the vulnerability that comes with that.” – Priscilla, [02:50]
  • Support from the Buzzsprout team and exposure to thousands of beginner podcasters eased her transition.

• Albin recounts his own nerves, intrusive thoughts, and fear of judgement from his social circles.

  • “I'd imagine other people who should be doing the show... and then I'm like, why is there space for me?” – Albin, [04:47]
  • Both agree most listeners don’t harshly judge new podcasters—in fact, it’s rare anyone thinks “they shouldn’t be doing this.”
  • “I'd be like, good for them for having the confidence to start that podcast.” – Priscilla, [05:45]

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2. Why & How to Prepare Podcast Guests

[07:19–14:25]

• Priscilla’s success in prepping guests is tied to her years helping new podcasters via support.

  • Her approach: treat each guest—podcaster or not—as someone new to public speaking, prioritizing comfort and confidence.

• Hosts recount awkward guest experiences:

  • Joining a call “cold,” with no introduction, unclear show direction, or surprise topics is a recipe for tense interviews.
  • “I've gotten some strange questions over the years... It's really nice when you know, here's the topics we want to hit.” – Albin, [10:38]
  • Preparing guests isn’t only about structure; conversational shows still thrive on solid prep.

• Structured vs. conversational:

  • Even shows billed as “free-flowing and authentic” benefit when guests know what to expect.
  • “The more comfortable your guest is and the more prepared they are, the easier it is to be conversational and free flowing.” – Jordan, [13:05]

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3. The Prep Spectrum: From No Prep to Deep Dives

[13:21–18:38]

• Extremes in guest prep:

  • Joe Rogan–style, minimal prep (relying on experience/personality).
  • Tyler Cowan–style, exhaustive research (reading all prior work, asking unique questions).
  • Most podcasters should land somewhere in the middle for the richest content.

• Key tip:

  • Do enough research to ensure you know why you want a guest, and what unique insights they’ll bring.
  • “Learn about the person first... they are the person to speak about this one specific thing.” – Priscilla, [17:05]

• Big guests aren’t necessarily the best:

  • Sometimes “unknown” passionate experts create far more compelling, high-performing episodes than big names repeating PR talking points.
  • "People like good conversation over talking points.” – Priscilla, [21:49]

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4. Research & Structure for Guest Interviews

[22:12–29:45]

• Albin’s process:

  • Deep research (sometimes 40+ hours), but doesn’t use all questions written; preparation creates a safety net, but flexibility is essential.
    • “The structure of the outline and the prep... allows you the freedom to deviate from it.” – Albin, [27:09]

• Priscilla’s process:

  • Enough research for comfort and flexibility; detailed outlines are for herself, provided outlines to guests are simpler—never rigid.
  • “Having the general flow is really good... but I’ve been on podcasts where ‘we’re done’ right at the time and that can feel really jarring.” – Priscilla, [35:18]

• Vacation analogy:

  • Prepping for an episode is like planning a trip—structure creates freedom to explore detours without chaos.

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5. Crafting Guest Prep Materials & Communication

[36:09–45:41]

• What to include in a guest prep email?

  1. Outline of topics or questions – but offer choice to ignore if that’s their style.
     • “Prepare as much as you feel comfortable.” – Priscilla, [39:33]
  2. Record specifics – time, video/audio, tech requirements, links, expected duration.
     • “Do you have a microphone and headphones you can use?... Getting it right at the beginning will save you so much time in post.” – Albin, [37:06]
  3. What info you need from them – bio, links, headshots, suggested additional topics.

• Timing:

  • Priscilla likes to send a week in advance to allow plenty of time and minimize guest stress.
    • “I want to give you plenty of time... so you can keep a calm environment.” – Priscilla, [42:44]
  • Albin prefers shorter lead time—“just a few days”—to keep things fresh and casual.

• Adapt to guest’s personality—ask how much prep or lead time they need.

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6. The Value of a Pre-interview Soundcheck

[48:18–54:42]

• Why schedule a soundcheck?

  • Makes everyone (especially less experienced guests) more comfortable; builds rapport; ensures audio/tech setup won’t derail the interview.
  • “Doing it the day beforehand... gives you a minute to be like, okay, the audio’s all good. Now, tomorrow... we know we’re gonna have good audio.” – Priscilla, [51:51]

• Soundcheck logistics:

  • Brief 10–15 minute call, addressed to both host and producer, especially crucial for non-podcaster or remote guests.

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7. Minimal Lift, Maximum Result: Quick Tips for Hobbyists

[54:42–58:07]

• If you only do one thing:
  • Albin: “Do some prep so you know you actually want to talk to this guest. Find someone you’re interested in.”
  • Priscilla: Have a plan for the conversation and do basic research (“Even 20–30 minutes makes all the difference”).
  • Jordan: Ask the guest up front about their prep style and comfort level—adapt accordingly.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On imposter syndrome:

“The vulnerability that comes along with... putting it out into the world and then inviting people to come listen to me... I knew the technical side of podcasting...but when it came to me actually sharing my insights, they did not seem valuable.”
— Priscilla [02:50]

On the importance of structure:

"The more comfortable your guest is and the more prepared they are, the easier it is going to be for them to be conversational and free flowing.”
— Jordan [13:05]

On balancing prep and flexibility:

“The structure of the outline and the prep... allows you the freedom to deviate from it, that you feel comfortable going in a new direction.”
— Albin [27:09]

On bad guest experiences:

“There’s nothing worse than going on a podcast and not knowing that it’s gonna be a video podcast.”
— Priscilla [41:01]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Imposter syndrome & nerves: [00:35–07:19]
• Why prepping guests matters: [07:19–14:25]
• Prep spectrum (no prep vs research heavy): [13:21–18:38]
• Research strategies & host systems: [22:12–29:45]
• Crafting guest prep emails: [36:09–45:41]
• Soundchecks & audio logistics: [48:18–54:42]
• Quick wins for hobbyist podcasters: [54:42–58:07]

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Practical Takeaways

• Prep makes guests comfortable—start with solid communication and be mindful of personalities.
• Send guests a simple outline with optional pre-read; clarify logistics (tech, time, video/audio).
• Don’t over-structure; allow the conversation to flow naturally and follow interesting tangents.
• Always clarify tech needs (mic, headphones, Wi-Fi) and schedule a short pre-interview soundcheck for rapport and troubleshooting.
• Adopt the plan-as-a-safety-net approach (plan like a flexible vacation!); structure brings freedom.
• Ask guests their prep style up front to accommodate different comfort zones.
• Above all: choose guests for the unique value and passion they bring, not just because they’re available.

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Additional Listener Q&A & Sound Off

• Listeners shared creative podcast marketing tactics—ranging from car window advertising and festival tie-ins to April Fool’s host-swapping and “unhinged” viral comments.
• Priscilla asks: "What tip do you have for preparing a guest for an interview?" Bonus if you have a story behind it.

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Closing & Bonus

The hosts share TV recommendations post-episode, underscoring the show’s casual, friendly, and community-driven tone.

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Summary prepared for listeners who want to instantly apply the best practices for prepping podcast guests, avoid common pitfalls, and create a supportive, engaging atmosphere for everyone at the mic.

Transcript

[Jordan Harbinger]

Sorry, I've got so many sirens out my window right now. Sorry, hold on a second.

[Priscilla]

I can't hear them at all.

[Jordan Harbinger]

It's bad.

[Albin]

You can never hear anything Jordan makes up.

[Jordan Harbinger]

It's.

[Albin]

Oh, oh, there's an airplane circling around.

[Priscilla]

This is gonna be an interesting episode.

[Jordan Harbinger]

All right, let me. Let me try this again. All right, we have.

[Albin]

All right, let's start now. I'm just saying. Let's go.

[Priscilla]

I really was about to say the first line.

[Albin]

All right, here we go.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Welcome back to Buzzcast Podcast about all things podcasting from the people at buzzsprout. So we have such a great episode planned for you today because filling in for Kevin is returning guest Priscilla. So Priscilla is the head of Podcaster Success here at Buzzsprout and the host of Happy to Help, which is our podcast about remarkable customer support. And one of the things that is so great about Priscilla as a podcast host is that she has this ability to prep guests in a way that makes them feel so confident and comfortable in our episodes, even if they're not podcasters. Like, they may be very uncomfortable in front of the microphone. And so that's a really hard thing to do. So what we'll be talking about in this episode is preparing guests to make them feel more confident and getting great interviews out of that. But first, what I want to talk about as the podcast producer here is if we go back to when we very first started the podcast, you had been helping podcasters start podcasting, like, easing doubts that they may have had in the support inbox for what, seven years?

[Priscilla]

Yeah, yeah. Cause I had been with Buzzsprout since 2017, and so by the time we launched the podcast, which was about a year ago, I had been helping podcasters learn how to podcast and launch and keep podcasting for, like, just about eight years, seven and a half years, something like that.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Okay. And so you went from the person who was just like, encouraging podcasters, helping to educate them, you knew everything about podcasting there was to know. Right. And then you had to actually start a podcast. Uh huh. What was so different from what you were anticipating with starting a podcast from, like, what actually happened? Like, what surprised you the most about it?

[Priscilla]

I feel like the thing that was the biggest challenge was the fact that I was going to be sharing my own thoughts from my brain in a public recorded way. I'm a little bit of a control freak, and so I like to have full control of, you know, what I'm saying or what I'm showing to people. And so I Think when I was doing the podcast in the beginning, there was an aspect of I have to let go of some of that, like, control that I have because I'm going to want to make sure that I don't release anything unless it is, like, absolutely perfect.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

And with podcasting, the nature of something sitting down and having a free flowing conversation that people are gonna wanna listen to, you have to let go of some of that because if you keep it so tight and scripted all the time, sometimes it can feel inauthentic. And so that was a big struggle, was like figuring out how I was gonna let go of that hyper perfection aspect and then also just sharing my thoughts, the vulnerability that comes along with that and putting it out into the world and then inviting people to come listen to me when sometimes I'm like, are these thoughts worth sharing in the first place? I don't know. And so I think you're right. I knew the technical side of podcasting and I was really good at encouraging other people to share their insights because I could see from the outside looking in that the insights that they were sharing were valuable. But when it came to me actually sharing my insights, they did not seem valuable. And so it was a lot harder to convince myself of that. Luckily enough, I had people like Jordan and Albin and Kevin and other people from the buzzsprout team encouraging me. And so I was able to push through some of that, like, imposter syndrome in the beginning. I mean, and honestly, like still now, but it's way easier to step back from it and see how something, how my thoughts and insights on things can actually be valuable to some people, even if it feels very vulnerable to actually do that.

[Albin]

Yeah. I had so many of the same experiences and it's funny how quickly they disappeared or they feel so far in the rearview mirror now. But there was a whole period where I like, imagined specific people from college. Like for some reason, in this hypothetical made up scenario, I was posting my podcast on Facebook and people were seeing it and then thinking in their head, what an idiot. First off, I never posted any of them on Facebook because there isn't the right place for me to share it. But I was like always insecure that these random people from like high school or college would think poorly of me. People who I didn't even talk to anymore.

[Priscilla]

Yeah, right.

[Albin]

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 one about the podcasting industry. And then I'm like, well, Maybe, you know, Adam Curry's already doing one of them and he founded podcasting. So what? Why is there space for me?

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Albin]

Oh, I'd like to do a marketing show, but this person who's a better marketer than me, they're already doing a podcast, or at least they should be doing it. So there's not somewhere for me and everybody you talk to. Like, almost every podcaster has these feelings of, oh, people are going to think I'm dumb. People are going to think, why is this the person who's doing the show? Why are they so high on themselves and think they're the expert? You know, they must think so highly of themselves to start a podcast. Like, the real answer is, if anyone's critiquing you like that, something's going on wrong in, like, their head, not yours. It doesn't matter. Just share what you want to share. And if they don't like it, then they won't subscribe. End of story.

[Priscilla]

Yeah, exactly. You know, I think of the fact that I don't think I've ever approached a podcast and really been like, oh, this person is so dumb. They should not be doing this podcast. But that's how I felt. Like people were approaching mine and I'm like, it's just so twisted. I would never go there for someone else's podcast. I might not be something I wanna listen to because I'm not interested in the topic that's possible, but I'm not gonna go, man, they really aren't qualified to do that podcast. I'd be like, good for them for having the confidence to start that podcast, even if I'm not listening to it, or even if it's not my cup of tea or whatever. And it's funny because I had the same thoughts, Alban. I was like, people are going to see this and they're going to be like, why do you think you should have a podcast? But if that's never a thought that I'm having, then why am I thinking other people are having that thought?

[Albin]

Yeah. And you having seen hundreds of thousands of buzzsprout podcasters reach out to support year after year after year.

[Priscilla]

So many.

[Albin]

And you're reading all these shows, and many of them are really good, but some of them are 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 with the idea, what an idiot, this person doesn't know what they're doing, then probably nobody's really thinking that or if people are like, they already had something against you anyway, so they're making up reasons.

[Priscilla]

Exactly.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

They have some other things going on, like you were saying, that's gonna cause them to think that about other people.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

But most of the time when I see a new podcast, I'm like, how cool is it that this person has a passion this strong about this super niche thing? Whether it is something I am passionate about or not, that's always where my head goes, is how cool that they are going to start talking about this thing that they love.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Okay, so as I had said earlier, one of the reasons why we had you on the podcast is because you have been so good at putting podcast guests at ease. And I know it sounds like I'm just saying this, but sitting in on these recordings of happy to help, one of the common things that is brought up by, I swear on my life, like every guest that we have on the show is, oh, my gosh, I feel so comfortable. I feel so prepared. You're so great at, like, outlining. Thank you so much. I feel so excited for this. I was nervous, but now I'm, like, excited about it. And so I think that there's a lot of different steps that you take to get to that point. But do you think that your background in customer support, you know, all these years of, like, helping people feel prepared, do you think that that has helped you with preparing non podcasting guests feel comfortable when they get into an interview?

[Priscilla]

Yeah, I think that it's not even just my experience in customer support, but specifically customer support in podcasting because I've spent so many years working with podcasters who are new and nervous to start their podcast. I've literally been doing this as my work for years and years of helping people feel comfortable in the podcasting space. It's just not been on a podcast recording with me, but it's been that I'm helping them feel comfortable to go and record their own first episode. And so I think you're right. And I don't even think I really ever thought about it like that until just now when you asked that question. Because I think that makes that transition so much easier. Because I'm trying to think about it as if this person who's coming on the show with me is like those podcasters who's coming on their first podcast. Even if they're not, even if they're a seasoned podcaster, I still want to make sure that as the host of the show, I am making it as comfortable as possible for them. So that they can come in and be as confident as possible, sharing their insight that I'm going to try to get out of them for my listeners.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

So I think we had our first guest on Happy to Help. I don't know, like, five or six episodes in, and I was feeling like, I want to make sure that I'm helping my guest feel as comfortable as Jordan was helping me feel when we were doing episode one. And so it's kind of like part of preparing for the guest and making them feel comfortable is also preparing to make myself feel comfortable. You know what I mean?

[Albin]

Yeah. I'm now noticing all these memories of, like, bad podcast interviews have been on.

[Priscilla]

Yeah.

[Albin]

And I have just this, like, list of things that can go wrong, and they became things that I naturally try to avoid when I'm interviewing someone.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Albin]

So, like, there's times where somebody shows up two minutes late, and you've been kind of sitting there, and now you're anxious that you missed the time, and you feel, like, silly. Then they show up and they just start the recording right away. There's no niceties.

[Priscilla]

Yep.

[Albin]

One where I was pretty sure they didn't know which of their guests was doing the recording, and so they were kind of, like, figuring out who I was while I was there. You know, just times where, like, it's so abrupt, and you're like, I don't know if the style of the show is going to be combative or friendly or Are we talking about podcasting? Are we talking about marketing? Are we talking about my career path? Or, like, what is it?

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

Yeah.

[Albin]

You know, people who don't send questions beforehand, sometimes you're like, yes. I literally have no idea where this conversation is going to go. So I'm just trying to show up and be open to it. But I've gotten some strange questions over the years. And so it's really nice when, you know, somebody gives you. Even if it's not the full questions, it's like, here's the topics that I want to hit.

[Priscilla]

This is the general outline.

[Albin]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

When I think about it in terms of happy to help, I want to make sure that the people who choose to give me an hour of their time to listen to this episode or 40 minutes or whatever the episode ends up, I want to make sure that it's bringing value to them and that they don't listen through it and go, I didn't really learn anything there. And I know that I have a better shot of that if I have a general idea for where I want the episode discussion to go and that that aligns with the person that I'm bringing on the show and what they can offer my listeners. Because if you don't even go that 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 that might be entertaining but might not have a ton of value. And so, depending on what you're talking about, it might be okay to have structure. Yeah, but if you're trying to have a podcast where people are learning from your show and they're listening and they're taking back insight into their work. So like, for Happy to help, we talk about creating remarkable support experiences. I want support professionals to listen to it and to be able to grow from it. So I need to make sure that every episode that we do has that value. And if I don't prepare ahead of time or correctly research the guest or make sure the audio is good or any of those things, then it's going to be harder in the moment of recording to make sure that value happens.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah. And let's talk about what you said about, you know, even if your podcast doesn't have a lot of structure, you still need to prep. And I think that is so true because you get so many podcasters where it's like, it's conversational, it's free flowing, you know, we're very like authentic and raw. And what a lot of people don't realize is the more comfortable your guest is and the more prepared they are, the easier it is going to be for them to be conversational and free flowing and at ease. And I think that that's one of the biggest things about why, you know, preparing your guest really, really matters to your podcast, regardless of how structured it is. You know, maybe you're educational, maybe you're just talking about kids or complaining about work, whatever, But I think that you still need to have at least some sort of outlining with your podcast. Make sure that your guest feels comfortable with the being discussed. Make sure that their audio is going to sound good, you know, because that's going to make things go so much easier. And you're not going to be thinking about the actual recording part of it. You're going to be thinking about connecting with a person that you have on your podcast.

[Albin]

Yeah, I think that there's a couple very high profile podcasters or interviewers who don't do much prep, really. And so well, I think of Joe Rogan does not do prep for his shows, really doesn't do much. Larry King famously did none before he would interview people. And you get a type of content which is interesting. It's like they're exploring along with you, but they haven't gone and done a ton of prep. It's more just kind of like, I'm following my intuition. We forget, like, Rogan is a comedian.

[Priscilla]

He's a personality.

[Albin]

Yeah, yeah. And so that's why that show works.

[Priscilla]

Yeah.

[Albin]

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 and hundreds of hours of this stuff where you are very good at just leading a conversation, even when it gets stale. The other side are podcasters or interviewers who do a ton of prep. You know, I think of like, Tyler Cowan, who will read like every book the person wrote before doing an interview.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Wow.

[Albin]

And is not asking a single question that could be found in another interview. Everything is, hey, assuming somebody's read everything you've ever done, here's the other questions that have never been asked. And I think, like, we all are going to fall between those two extremes. Like, I'm going in cold or I'm going in having read everything. But the chances that it blows up. Almost all of the real blow up interviews all happen at the. I did almost no research, you know that side. Like, I know that there's a type of content that works, but it's very personality driven. There's got to be some really good energy. There's got to be good chemistry. But mostly what really works well is a lot of prep so that you go, oh, there's not a real good story there. Like, normally people would think I'd ask about that, but there's really not a good story. Oh, there seems to be a really interesting story around. I'm remembering a story of somebody who they found an anecdote that the person they're interviewing got over their fear of flying, but they never anywhere else talked about how they got over their fear of flying. And so Tyler Cowell goes, how do you get over your fear of flying? And he goes, oh, well, I started hang gliding. I do small hang gliding, little things. And I gradually worked myself up doing more and more intense 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 really interesting story because you read everything and you realized there was a solution and no one had ever heard the story. And you got it.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Albin]

Versus Somebody who didn't do any prep, who could never have pulled that story out.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah, that reminds me of one of the most common questions I get asked when I guest on other podcasts is people asking about how I went from only getting, like, a thousand downloads per month to suddenly, like, just shooting up into, you know, over a hundred thousand downloads per month in, like, a few months. And they're always like, what'd you do? How'd you do that? And I was just like, I didn't do anything. I didn't. And that's not interesting, that's not compelling. It doesn't lead anywhere because I don't have answers. I tried figuring out what happened, couldn't fig out what happened. I don't know. It just took off. And I think if, like, some of the people that had, like, interviewed me had gone and listened to maybe one or two of the other interviews I had been in, I wouldn't be asked that question every single time. And it's getting to the point where, like, I actually hate answering that question because I. I know I'm going to let them down. I'm. I'm not going to have a good answer for it.

[Priscilla]

Yeah, I think there is definitely an aspect when you're doing the research for someone that you're going to have on your show. For me, before I even get to the point where I'm asking someone to come on the show, I wanna know why I want them on the show. So usually I'll be like, I'll stumble across someone who says something that clicks with me, or maybe it's something that is intriguing, but not necessarily something I agree with. But I know that it's gonna be an interesting conversation that my listeners will be able to learn from and grow from. So I'll hear that, or I'll read that, and then I'll kind of do a little deep dive into this person. Well, who is this person? What have they written? What have. What podcasts they've been on, that kind of a thing? What have they done? What's their experience before I even decide whether I want to ask them on the show? And I think that sometimes is the thing for me when I'm listening to podcasts and I'm like, why is this person here? Why did we choose this person to have come on the show? Did we choose them because you're just trying to have another episode come out, and this person goes on lots of podcasts, and so I just want that person to come and kind of be the person that I interview. Today, or is it because you think there's something special about this person and that I, as the listener, am gonna get value person specifically? And so when I'm looking for people, I find that the best episodes that I have are the ones where I learn about the person first and go, this person is the person to speak about this one specific thing. And I want them to come talk about that with me on my podcast for my listeners. And not just a, oh, this is a person who I know does podcasting. And now let me come up with something for them to talk about.

[Albin]

Yes.

[Priscilla]

You know what I mean? It's like the topic is the leader, and the person is the expert on that topic, and so that's why they should come. I also think that when you start there and then you reach out to the person to ask them to come on your show, you can then give them so much more of a reason why they should.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yes.

[Priscilla]

Hey, I read this article that you wrote about whatever it is. I mean, I think of the first person that we had on Happy to Help, Sarah Caminiti. I reached out to her because she had something called the Kindness Initiative.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Oh, yeah.

[Priscilla]

About how to lead support teams with kindness. And I thought that was such a cool idea. Yeah. And so I was like, hey, I really want you to come talk about this thing that you feel passionately about. And so when she got that email, she was like, oh, my gosh. Not only is this person asking me to come promote the stuff I've worked on, but they actually came to me because they know about the stuff I worked on.

[Albin]

Right.

[Priscilla]

And that's why they want me to come.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah. She has other things on her resume. Yeah. But you chose this passion project that she has.

[Priscilla]

Because I feel like it will bring value to the people that are listening to the podcast. And so I think that can really help when you know that why. And let that be the reason why you're reaching out to someone versus just saying, hey, I know that you're like a big mover in the space. You want to come be on my show? Because then it can feel like, hey, I know you have a lot of followers. You want to come on my show and bring all your followers to me. That can potentially feel like you're just the next warm body to put in my, you know, my guest chair.

[Albin]

And there's so many podcasts you can see, the same guest ends up on, like, eight of the top ten shows.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Albin]

And they all kind of circulate the same rotating guest list, and it's like, oh, this person was on this show. Then they got on that show and then they were invited on this show and they did the same. And it's like, it's the same guy. It's like, why we don't need to hear the same person get interviewed with the same angles just because they went and did the podcast circuit for a little bit. And I recently listened to an interview on the Dwarkesh podcast, and he has interviewed, like, Mark Zuckerberg and Sasha Nadella from Microsoft and Sam Altman from OpenAI. Like, anyone in AI he's interviewed. And yet his top four episodes are all historians. And, like, three of them are Sarah Payne, who was kind of like an unknown academic before she went on this podcast. Her episodes are crushing the Mark Zuckerberg interviews.

[Jordan Harbinger]

That's wild.

[Albin]

Why? Because she knows everything about these few periods of history, and it's really interesting and she's a great storyteller. And Mark Zuckerberg is coming in with a bunch of prep around. How do we want this to sound with our through. You know, we got a press release and we want to do all of this prep for how we position ourselves. And so you get kind of a CEO who's been. Even though they're like the biggest name you could get, they're still prepped down to don't say anything too interesting. Kind of stick to the talking points that we already did on five other podcasts. And finding a relatively unknown person who you are like, oh, wow, there's something interesting and different, and they have a different perspective that actually can dominate. Even just the download numbers, I just think is so interesting. And so he had this interview where he talked about, yeah, my top four episodes are all these historians. And you look at the guest list, you're like, it couldn't be more star studded. And yet they're all losing out to just interesting people.

[Priscilla]

Yeah. And it just shows that people like good conversation over talking points. And people can see through when it's just those talking points. And, oh, this person is here to promote XYZ and they're doing the podcast tour. But when it's someone coming on and talking about the thing they're passionate about and it is fostering this really good conversation, that's what people want to hear.

[Albin]

Exactly.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah. And, Albin, you do a lot of guest prep for buzzsprout conversations. It's interesting because you are interviewing creators. And so I want to hear what you do to prepare for guest interviews. And then I want to see if it's a little Bit different. Or Priscilla, if you have a different experience, basically interviewing non content creators and how you go about it, too. Albin, I want to start with you and kind of just see what kind of things that you use to prepare for your interviews or do some guest research.

[Albin]

So I started that show, I think, with interview of Jordan Harbinger. And when I did that, I think I did 40 hours of prep. Whoa. I committed to I'm gonna do, like, as much prep as I can. And so I listened to every interview of his that I could where he talked about creating podcasts, which apparently he'd actually done a lot at that point. I went and read tons of his old tweets, and I think I found some blogs he wrote. And then I listened to actual episodes, and one of the things I found out was he'd been a lawyer and I'd been a lawyer. And he talked about how he did guest prep, and it sounded like what I was doing. And I realized, oh, what we're both doing is what lawyers do all the time, which is depo prep, which is you read every document and then you write questions that you know the answer to, or at least you think you know the answer, and so you ask it. And when they don't know exactly what they're doing, the answer's not there. Then you go, oh, here's an interview that you said in, like, 2008. And like, they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the story. Okay, I'm going back. And so it was only through that prep that I realized my style was I love doing more research than is, like, reasonable.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Albin]

And like, only do the research on people that are interesting to you so that you can ask questions that will 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've ever said this, but I will think of a podcaster who I admire, and I will be like, all right, I'm trying to mimic their style. Like, what kind of questions would they be asking?

[Jordan Harbinger]

Oh, interesting.

[Albin]

Yeah. And then I'm trying to come up with questions, and I only feel like I use half of the questions that I wrote. And you end up trying to be in the moment and follow people because sometimes they say something, you're like, oh, well, that was actually way more interesting than anything I had prepped. Tell me more about it. I'd like to hear your perspective on this, Priscilla. How often is the conversation following stuff you Already prepped. And how much is it in the moment?

[Priscilla]

Well, it's funny because when you were talking about that interview with Jordan Harbinger and then with Kate Casey also.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Oh, yeah.

[Priscilla]

And when I was in the process of launching Happy to Help, I remember thinking about how much time you had put into those. Those two specifically, but just the prep. You had posted something in Basecamp or something about how much time you had put into it. And I remember thinking, oh, my gosh, if I have guests on this podcast, I'm going to have to spend 40 hours or 20 hours or whatever it was doing prep. This is gonna be way too time consuming. I can't do that. And so right off the bat, I was very nervous about having guests on because I knew how much prep you had done. So now hearing you explain that it was the depo prep part of your brain, I'm like, okay, that makes so much sense.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

I think it's very important to be prepared and to do that research and to have a framework for the episode, whether that's exact questions or whether it's an outline of where you want the conversation to go. I think you need to do enough research that you have that basis so you're not coming into it completely cold. Because if you come in completely cold, sometimes it can expose your lack of preparation, I guess, just the fact that you don't know who you're talking to. And so you need to be able to have at least enough of a working knowledge of the person and of what they're gonna talk about to be able to engage in a conversation, especially if you're new and it's not something that you've been doing for years and years and years. But when I am prepping, I will do research on the person. I'll get a good understanding of who they are. I'll listen to some of their past episodes or podcasts or things they've written or ways they've talked about things. But I try not to get too much into the weeds on that because I almost like approaching them with not knowing the answer to what I'm gonna ask them. And then to answer your question, Albin, I feel like all of that preparation is really good, but once you sit down and start recording with someone, you have to be okay with it not following exactly the outline that you've put together.

[Jordan Harbinger]

100%.

[Priscilla]

Yeah. Because the danger is you are so tight to your outline that you miss out on really cool conversations because you have to go back to the questions or you miss out on a conversation at all, because you're just throwing questions at them and they're answering them, and then you move to the next question and you're not responding to the questions that they have just answered.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

And so I think it's good to prepare. It's good to have kind of that safety net of an outline, but sometimes you're going to veer off of that, and you have to be okay with that in order to have a really good conversation that people want to listen to.

[Albin]

I always tell people that the structure of the outline and the prep that allows you the freedom to deviate from it, that you feel comfortable going in a new direction. When you're like, oh, I know a lot about this person. I know that this is an interesting detour and we can come back later, I feel comfortable. But if it's somebody, I don't really know much about them, and I only have four questions written down, and then they start going on a new path, then I start feeling anxious, and I'm like, oh, I got to pull you back. Because we're getting into territory I have known nothing about already. And we're two minutes in, or we blitzed through the only topics I knew about, and now you want to move on to something else. This is going to get awkward pretty quick.

[Priscilla]

Yeah.

[Albin]

And the prep is what allows me to feel the comfort, and I really don't want to. Like, I think I just shared that number because I remember that I kept that much. I don't think that's doable for almost anybody. Luckily, I worked somewhere that was paying me to do the interview, and I really liked Jordan, and I think I'd met him at a conference. I really wanted to do a good job. I knew he did a ton of prep, so I wanted to try to max match that energy.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Albin]

So there was a lot of other things going on. I think most podcasters is just not. 40 hours is not a reasonable amount of prep. I think for a lot of people, if you're doing five hours of prep and, you know, you're actually going and reading their latest LinkedIn posts, and you actually did find a blog that they wrote, and you listened to a few episodes while you were, you know, working out and you jotted down a few questions, you're probably going to have done more than 90% of the interviews they've already done, and you're going to get something really interesting.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

So you were just talking about that having the outline gives you the freedom to deviate from. It made me think of, like, planning Vacations. I am a big planner. I love to plan vacations. But part of the reason that I plan a vacation is so that we have the freedom to throw the plan away.

[Albin]

Yes.

[Priscilla]

Because the worst thing about not planning a vacation, saying, I want to go and just do whatever I want, whatever opportunities open up. That's great. Okay. But what if you end up getting to the Vatican because you want to go to the Vatican and you had to have a ticket, and now you can't get a ticket to the Vatican for another four days, but you're going to be gone by then. And so having the plan there allows you to have that safety net so that you can go to the Vatican because you want to do that, but then maybe you throw out some of the plan because there's something cool that you just found as you were walking to the Vatican that you really want to do. And so I think it's like the same kind of idea. Having that plan there allows you to not spend four hours in a parking lot trying to figure out what you're going to do next.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yes.

[Albin]

The worst thing, like, you're on a vacation and you wrap something up. And then it was like, where should we eat? And people start looking up on their phone, restaurants nearby. And because you're on, you're in a unique city. Everyone's like, it's gotta be a good spot. And now you're rushing around a city trying to find a place to eat, and then you're like, what's better Would have been a little bit of prep, picked out a spot, maybe even gotten a reservation. And then the freedom to say, oh, we met some random person nearby, and they said, you've got to try this place. And it sounded good, so we switched it.

[Priscilla]

Right.

[Albin]

No big deal to switch it. You don't have to be locked in stone. But having, like, some plan makes it so you don't have to do that, like, awkward planning during the event. And I think you're right. There's a real corollary between trip planning and podcast interviewing.

[Priscilla]

Yeah.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Okay, so if a podcast episode is a vacation and you're going on this vacation, how deep are we getting into this itinerary? Is this going to be punchlines like, today we're gonna go to the beach, and this day we're gonna go on a tour at a museum, and this day we're do this? Or are we getting into the more detailed stuff of like, okay, at this time, we're going to talk about this,

[Priscilla]

and here's the outfit. You have to Wear. We're all wearing green.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Exactly. So before the interview, you typically will send an outline or you'll send questions. Interview questions to the guest. How detailed of an outline do you actually send people?

[Priscilla]

I mean, not super detailed. I like to give them the questions I'm gonna ask. And I give them a little bit of on, like, what we're gonna cover in the intro. So it'll say, like, here's the intro. We're gonna welcome guest. We're gonna ask the guest this question. And then now we get into the body of it, and these are the two questions that are falling under this section of the conversation, and then the next. It's kind of like you would outline a paper in school. Right. It's just that kind of a basic framework. I might keep for myself more detail as the person who's gonna be responsible for continuing the conversation flow. But what I give to the guest is a little bit more bare bones. It's a little. I mean, it's all the questions, but it's not all of the context around every question necessarily.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Oh, yeah.

[Priscilla]

And I think that also preparing that and having that, I always go into it with a mindset of, this is a great conversation starter, this outline. But if we don't end up getting to this entire outline or if we end up going in a little bit of a different direction with this, I'm not gonna feel like this is wasted work. And I think that that's also something. Cause I know for myself and my own personality, sometimes I can feel like, oh, my gosh, I just wasted all this time. Cause I planned this outline, and then we got stuck on the first two questions, and we just kind of stayed there and had this great conversation about that. And I think that having a mindset of that's okay if that happens, because it's still solved. The goal of this podcast was to have this great conversation. And so even if the outline only got, you know, the first two questions out, that's okay. And I think there's like a mindset going into it and kind of holding it with an open hand when you send it and say, here's the details that I'm going to ask you about. But no guarantee that's where we're going to end up all the time.

[Albin]

You know, I'm really. As you talk, the more I'm thinking, I like this. A podcast episode is like a trip connection, because you're trying to take people on a trip they actually want to go on. And you've got to, like, so your Listeners are coming on this trip with you. You can't just say, we're checking out the list of, you know, the most famous people who go on podcast interviews or the most famous places to go on vacation, because they're both kind of dead in the same way. You know, they've done the same interview over and over. Or it's a tourist trap that everybody goes to. And so it's kind of. There's nothing interesting there. So you're trying to plan something. So you have, like these defaults. You have a plan. And then when you're in the moment, if you go to Rome and everyone's having an amazing time in Vatican City and everyone's learning a ton, and you're wowed by the Sistine Chapel and you stay in Vatican City and you do that for three days, that's okay. If you missed out on the Colosseum because everyone had an amazing trip in one part of Rome, that's okay. The worst type of trip is kind of like the worst type of podcast. It's the show up, have no plan, and then go, what are the most common things that everyone asks this guest? And then you blitz through them and you get no depth, nothing different. And you're like, everybody got the selfie with the Coliseum in the background. Cool. Everyone heard Mark Zuckerberg say, like, oh, I started Facebook when I was at Harvard. Like, I got the same thing. Everybody else gets, great. Go for something different.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Conversely, too, if you have too tight of an itinerary and you're saying, hey, we're gonna go to the Roman History Museum. And I, Jordan, am going like, oh, my gosh, I'm gonna spend like three hours there because it's so interesting. And I wanna make sure that we dive into every single detail. And then they go, we have 20 minutes to visit that museum. Suddenly I'm gonna have this feeling of dread. And I've gotten outlines, like pre interview outlines, where it's like, intro, two minutes, this topic, five to seven minutes. And I'm going, crap, crap, crap. I can't talk that fast.

[Priscilla]

I used to when we. I don't know if you remember, Jordan, but my first, like, outlines that I did for. Happy to help. I was very worried that I wouldn't have enough to talk about.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Oh, my gosh, yes.

[Priscilla]

And so I would put in times just so that I would go, I need to talk about this for 10 minutes. Because this episode shouldn't be seven minutes long. So I need to make sure that I'm talking about this for five minutes. And this for 10 minutes, and then this for 10 minutes to, like, encourage myself to prepare enough to fill up. 10 minutes, right?

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

And I think that pretty quickly I learned that putting that kind of a time limit on it is too restricting.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Oh, it's so hard. Yeah.

[Priscilla]

Having the general flow is really good and having a goal for a time limit is good. But I've been on podcasts where they're like, hey, this is a 30 minute podcast. So we're gonna talk for 30 minutes and then we're gonna be done. I'd be like, great. And then we're in the middle of a conversation, it's going really awesome. And then they go, okay, well, thanks so much for being here. And I'm like, whoa, we're done. Yes. And it's because we had this really great conversation. They saw the 30 minute mark and now we're done. And that can feel really jarring when you're in the middle of a really good conversation. And if it's jarring to you as the person who's recording, it's probably gonna be jarring to your listeners as well. And so I think sometimes you're right. Putting those, like, time limits on things or having too many constraints on your recording can really end up biting, you know?

[Jordan Harbinger]

Absolutely. So we talked about sending stuff to the guest to prep them. I want to hear from both you, Priscilla and Alvin. What do you include in a guest prep email when you've booked the guests and you said, great, they want to be on and it's, you know, however long before the interview, maybe that's something we can talk about too, is like, how early do you send this guest prep email? What exactly do you, like, include in that email so that you're making sure that you cover all your bases?

[Albin]

I mean, man one that you wouldn't think you need to send is ask people, do you have a microphone and do you have headphones that you can use? Because even people who are podcasters, when I'm interviewing creators, I have still had people who have tens of thousands of downloads per episode plus show up without access to a mic. And I'm so surprised because I'm like, you do this for a living. You know that it's not gonna sound good.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Albin]

And I think that, you know, people just put it as a thing on their calendar and they don't really think about it.

[Priscilla]

It.

[Albin]

And so having a, hey, are you going to have access to good wi Fi? I've had interviews that the whole thing's just way more difficult when someone Is like, oh, I'm on vacation and I don't have good wi fi.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Albin]

And it's just like, it's better at that point to reschedule rather than fight it, you know, trying to get a good mic. I'm sending the basics, even to the experts, because having a good mic, having headphones, and having good wi fi make everything so much better. And you can fix a lot of this with Magic Mastering. You can fix it with video editing if you're doing video. But getting it right at the beginning will save you so much time in post.

[Priscilla]

And it communicates to your guest that you care about how this is going to be done. Right. You care about the final result of the episode. If you're saying, hey, I want to make sure you have these things in place, then they feel like they're taken care of. They're like, oh, Albin actually wants this to sound really good at the end, so I can kind of rest assured that he knows what he's doing and he's gonna make sure that I sound good and he wants me to prepare for it as I should in order to sound really good at the end. I mean, the three of us, I know I don't know if all the listeners, but we've been on podcasts where you're like, oh, gosh, this is not gonna turn out well. Like, I can be in control of what I'm saying, but I don't have any control over how the audio's gonna sound. And I don't know if I trust this person because they're not showing to me that they are taking it with the same kind of care that they should. And so I think that when you ask those questions, even to an expert who's gonna be like, oh, yeah, I've got headphones, I've got a mic, I've got a soundproof studio, they're gonna still feel like, oh, Albin cared enough to ask and to make sure that I'm set up well, 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 let them know. I'm a big preparer. I like to have an outline to know what the conversation flow is gonna be. But if that's not your style and you don't wanna look at the questions ahead of time, you do not have to.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Oh, interesting.

[Priscilla]

I always tell people that if you don't wanna look at them, you don't have to, if you feel confident enough in your own ability. Because some people are better at that than over preparing. Oh, Kevin, Kevin is a great example.

[Jordan Harbinger]

He does amazing not preparing. I cannot do that at all.

[Priscilla]

I can't do that either. So I always say, here's the outline, check it out. Prepare as much as you feel comfortable preparing. Most of the time people will read through the questions and then if they're a preparer, they'll write out their responses and figure out how they're, what points they want to hit. And if they're not, they're not going to look at the questions a second time. Yeah, and so I always send that and then I like point out anything that I need their response on. So we have a segment on Happy to Help called Support in Real Life. And so I'll ask them, hey, do you wanna stick around for that? That's optional if you don't wanna be there for that. We don't have to record that with you on the recording. Or we ask everyone the same question. And so I always say, hey, we're gonna ask you how someone made your day recently and I want you to be prepared with a good story to tell. So I'm gonna give you that info ahead of time. The second segment of the email is like what Albin was talk recording details. So I'm gonna give them the link to the recording studio that we're gonna use. So our Riverside link, I'll give them some time expectations. I'm asking for them to take time out of their day to come and record with me and I wanna be respectful of their time. And that that is an ask. Regardless of the size of the guest you're bringing on, you're asking for their time. So I will usually say, hey, I block off an hour and a half. We're not gonna record that full time. But I wanna make sure that I'm only taking from you the amount of time that I need and I don't wan or go over it. And so I wanna be really honest about that. I give them details on. Is this video, is this audio?

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yes.

[Priscilla]

There's nothing worse than going on a podcast and not knowing that it's gonna be a video podcast.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah, until you see it on YouTube

[Priscilla]

and then all of a sudden you're wearing a baseball hat and it's shadow over your face. Cause you didn't think about the fact that it was gonna be video until you're sitting there. So I wanna give people that kind of information ahead of time. And then like album was Saying, I will say, you know, do you have a microphone? Do you have a headphones? I'll link to some of our resources that Buzzsprout has for guest prep so that the guest can go and watch this video and get an idea of what they need to do to prepare on their end.

[Albin]

Yeah.

[Priscilla]

And then the last section of that email is my like, hey, and this is the information I need from you about you as I continue to prepare for this episode. And so that'll be a headshot and a bio and what links are really important for you to be in the episode. And then I also will ask them if there's anything that I didn't touch on that they really want to touch on in the outline.

[Jordan Harbinger]

That's a good question.

[Priscilla]

Yeah. Like, is there anything that when you read through the outline, you're like, man, you really missed this because I'm not an expert in everything that you're an expert in when I'm bringing you on. So I know that there are gonna be places where, you know, there's some gap maybe. And so I'll always ask, if there's something that you wanna talk about that I didn't include in the outline, let me know and I'll find a way to work it in. So that's kind of the stuff that I hit when I send that email, and I have it pretty written, and then I tailor it to each person when I email it, but it helps to kind of have it all there and ready to go.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Okay, so if we're heading into a recording, how far ahead of time before the recording do you send this, like, prep email? Because it is a lot of information.

[Priscilla]

We usually record on Thursdays. I like to send it the Friday before. So just about a week.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Okay. Yeah.

[Priscilla]

And part of that is because I want to give plenty of time. I don't know what your schedule is like leading up to our recording. And the last thing I want to do is send you something the day before. And then all of a sudden, it's made your life chaotic because you're now having to drop everything to prepare for this podcast. And so I want to give you plenty of time so that you can keep a calm environment around you and take time and look at this when it makes sense in your schedule for the next seven days. That means that I'm preparing pretty far in advance, but it's really nice because then it also allows time for them to ask questions or say, oh, well, I don't really want to talk about this specific thing. You've asked me about, so can we move that out and then rework things? It gives a little bit more control to them and just time for that. And then if there's questions about, oh, well, I don't have a microphone or I don't have good headphones, they're not having to, like, run to Target to buy headphones that night because they didn't have headphones. They can do it over the weekend.

[Albin]

One thing I would add to that is I've had a few people recently who they send all that early, but then they send a, hey, by the way, here's the link to record like 10 minutes before we do it. Oh, yeah, and that is so nice because what you're effectively doing is reminding them, hey, I know we sent it on the calendar. I know we agreed to this two weeks 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 kind way. And at the very top of their email now is the link to show up. There's nothing more frustrating than, oh, it's time to go into the recording. I want to be there a minute early. I go and I go, oh, it's not in the invite. And then you're going back through all of their emails. And I've got six different. You've been invited to a Riverside recording emails in the last two weeks. So I don't know which of them was theirs. So I had a few people do that recently and I really like it. You know, the reminder just a few minutes before, hey, here's the link to our recording. So I think that's really useful. I'm probably a little bit less prepped out than Priscilla on, like, sending stuff to the people early. My feeling is I never want to plan to do a podcast interview more than a few days in advance anyway. I think on the guest side, I'd rather just be like, okay, yes, I'll do it and we'll do it in two days. And so I mostly am trying to do that relatively quickly.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Interesting. Yeah. So just so it's like, fresh on their mind.

[Albin]

There's nothing worse for me than, like, committing to an interview a month out and then all of a sudden it's there and I'm like, oh, wow, I've had a month and I haven't done anything like that. Feels way worse.

[Jordan Harbinger]

I did that twice in the last couple weeks or at a month, and then it was suddenly, like, both of them in the same week. I was like, oh, no.

[Albin]

When you played something a month out there, something in your brain that's like, it's not real. It's not. And then it happened, and then it shows up and you're like, I don't really want to do this. Why did I commit to this?

[Priscilla]

I think it's a really good example of why there is an aspect of preparing for episodes that is very personality based. Because I do not want someone to ask me to be on a podcast tomorrow that will throw me into a, oh, my gosh, what do I do? And now I'm spiraling and I don't know. I don't have anything to say because I haven't had the chance to prep for it. So I wanna make sure that anyone who has a brain like my brain, they have the time to prepare on their own schedule. And if I send an outline to them a week ahead and they don't wanna look at it until the day before, that's totally fine. That's their call. But I wanna make sure that they have the ability to prep if they want to. I was on a podcast recently and hadn't heard anything from the podcaster, and we were like two days away from the podcast, and I was like, man, I know the general topic, but I don't know what she's gonna ask me. She said she would send me this and I didn't know what to do. And so I feel kind of the opposite of Albin in that sense. Which really comes down to the fact that our personalities are different and the way that we approach things like that are different. And so as a podcaster who's working with all different types of people, it can be really helpful to know the kind of person that's coming on your show. Do they want to prep? Do they want that time or do they not want that time? So I think it can be helpful to know your guest a little bit like that so that you can tailor the way you're preparing a little bit for your guest. Again, going back to what we were talking about in the beginning to make your guest the most comfortable, and maybe

[Jordan Harbinger]

even when you're booking the guest or you're in that conversation with them, seeing if they want to be on the guest or they're pitching you, maybe you ask them, what's your prep style? Like, do you want me to just like throw some talking points at you like the day before because, you know that's what's comfortable for you? Or do you want like a week or even two weeks to prepare for this Is that gonna make you feel more comfortable?

[Priscilla]

Yeah, I definitely think if you're listening to this and you are guesting on podcasts, you can be open about that too. I was on a podcast a couple months ago and had a quick conversation with the guy beforehand and he said, I like to not prep, so I'm not gonna send you an outline. And I said, ooh, I work better if I have a little bit of an outline. And he made me an outline.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Wow.

[Priscilla]

He said, okay, yeah, I'll pull together a little outline. It won't be super detailed, but to give you an idea of how to prepare. And I thought that was a really great way to make me feel comfortable coming on his show because if he hadn't done that, I would have been a little bit more nervous. It may have still gone well, but I wouldn't have felt as comfortable. And the best conversations come from comfortable people. And so he was like, yeah, let me make you a little more comfortable and give you an outline. And I thought that was a really great thing for him. But he wouldn't have known that that's how I prepare best if I hadn't told him.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah, exactly. So one of the things, Priscilla, that we do that I don't recall ever having done this for a podcast that I've guessed it on, but something that we do for all of our guests and maybe a little bit to their chagrin, I'm not sure that they enjoy this so much, but we schedule a pre interview sound check meeting and it's like a 15 minute thing.

[Priscilla]

Yep.

[Jordan Harbinger]

So do you want to talk through a little bit why we do this?

[Priscilla]

Yeah. So. So one of the first podcasts that I was on, I had never spoken to the person before. I didn't know them, they'd reached out to me, they asked me to come on. I had never done a podcast before. This was years ago. You know, we got on, they started recording without really telling me they were recording.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Oh, yeah.

[Priscilla]

And I felt very thrown into it without really knowing what was gonna happen. And it was not a comfortable experience. And I didn't feel really great afterwards. And. And the second podcast experience I had a few years later, someone asked me to be on their show and they sent me an outline, very thin, just a couple topics that they wanted to touch on. And then they said, I wanna do a five minute soundcheck like the day before. And I went, oh, gosh, okay.

[Jordan Harbinger]

It sounds scary and official.

[Priscilla]

And I will tell you that soundcheck made a huge difference in the way that I approached 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 deal. And so I started doing that in Happy to Help because the first guest that I had on Happy to Help was again, Sarah Camaniti. We were emailing and I just said, hey, would you rather just jump on a call and we could talk through this? And she said, sure. And we jumped on a call and my nerves went from like Max to oh, wait a minute, this is just a fun person I'm having a conversation with and I'm pressing record. Like it brought my as a host's nerves way down. Wow. So as we started doing those check ins then more regularly, not for every single person who comes on the show, but most of the time, especially if I don't know you personally, we'll do a sound check. And it's for a couple reasons. One is because it allows me to be familiar with the person I'm talking to.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yes.

[Priscilla]

If it's a 10 minute sound check, it gives us a minute to have a quick conversation about something that is not related to the topic we're talking about.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah. We had one guest come on and he was living in the UK and I started talking about this like 1990s UK archeology deep cut TV show and he eased right up and it turned out to be this like hilarious thing that we connected on and then he was immediately so excited to get in the interview. We weren't talking about the topic that we were going to be discussing on the podcast.

[Priscilla]

We were just connecting. Yeah, exactly. And you just get that familiarity that then means tomorrow or next week or whenever it is when we actually sit down to record. We already have a little bit of history. So I kind of feel a little bit more comfortable with you already. I also think that, you know, we were talking about having like good sound and good audio and all of that. That is a big part of it too. You, Jordan as the producer, get to then sit in on this conversation and make sure everything sounds good. And is their mic placed in the right spot? Do they have enough, you know, soundproofing in the room? Should we have them pull in a couple blankets to have around them to soak up some sound? Like that kind of a thing can really help.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah, that has saved our episodes a few times.

[Priscilla]

Yeah. Especially if you're having people who aren't like traditional podcasters coming on your show that don't have that setup already. It can be really helpful and then it takes away from the stress of like, oh, let's do that right before we actually record. And so now we're scrambling to get that sound stuff in place, and then we're about to hit record. Doing it the day beforehand for 10 minutes gives you a minute to be like, okay, the audio is all good. Now, tomorrow, when we sit down to actually record, we know we're gonna have good audio. We know there's gonna be a little bit of familiarity already between guest and host and producer. And then also it gives a little bit of a buffer time for them to ask questions about the recording. If you need a little bit of time to have those things sorted out before you actually start recording.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah. And the other part of this, I was thinking about Albin talking about the email that he sends to G, like, the guest prep, and he said, like, the most important thing you can do is ask them, do you have a dedicated microphone? Do you have a microphone? The number of people who do have microphones. And then we get into a sound check with them, and they had set their, like, Samsung Q2U two feet away from them. And so it sounds like they're speaking from their laptop. 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 hear them crystal clear. And it's like, wow, that was amazing. Or we had one guest who had a blue Yeti, but the settings weren't right. And so we helped her fine tune her blue Yeti, so it actually sounded good for her environment. So, you know, you can ask people, hey, do you have a microphone? They'll go, yeah, I have a microphone, but they might not know how to use it. Yeah.

[Priscilla]

And so it gives you a little bit of time, separated from the actual interview, to set that up and so that it's not, like, happening in this rushed moment right before you start talking, which then will inevitably lead into a conversation that feels rushed and a little bit, you know, uncomfortable at times.

[Albin]

A side benefit that kind of occurred to me while you spoke, Priscilla, was I've had times where I got much more strict over, you know, after editing and seeing how painful it could be, that I would be comfortable saying, hey, hey, do you have any other headphones? Maybe we could try to find some others in the house. Maybe you could try this or that, and we would cycle through trying to get a little bit better audio. The downside is, if you do that, you could end up spending your first 15 minutes on soundcheck during the recording. Well, if they've only scheduled 45 minutes and they have a hard stop, your episode now is 30 minutes of recording and you're going to cut 10. And so now you've got a very tight episode where you may not get to a lot of the things you want. And so it's nice if you have that ability and they're willing to show up and do a quick sound check, it might be a nice thing to offer a lot of guests.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yes, absolutely. So I feel like this is an information dense episode. And so I know that we all do this for a job, you know, like, as Alvin had explained before, he was able to spend so much time prepping for interviews because. Because he gets paid for it. Like, it's part of what we do. And so for someone who is a hobbyist podcaster, if they only have time to budget for one thing, like if they were just to take one small thing to vastly improve the guest experience on their podcast, what is something that they should do?

[Albin]

Do some prep so that, you know, I actually want to talk to this guest.

[Priscilla]

Yeah.

[Albin]

I'm not just doing it because they seem like a warm body that will show up and they do interviews. Like, find someone that you're interested in. I think the type of pitch Priscilla is talking about. I read this article. I really liked it. Here's an angle. Sending them that is really, really good. And you don't have to do the 40 hours of prep that I talked about that I did once. But, like, putting in some prep on the front end will always make the conversation better, even as if your conversation gets to go somewhere new and exciting than you ever expected.

[Priscilla]

Yeah, I would say have an idea for where you want the conversation to go and what value you want to bring to your listeners. So that doesn't have to be a full outline and it doesn't have to be 12 questions, but it can be, what do I want listeners to earn from this podcast? Like, what do. What value do I want this to bring? Knowing that and then knowing enough about your guests that you can have an educated conversation with them. If you have 20 minutes to prepare for an episode, you can spend 10 minutes on defining what you want this conversation to look like. And then you could spend 10 minutes figuring out who you're having on and what their 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 only have, you know, 20 to 30 minutes to prep for each episode. Cause I know people who do their episodes during their lunch break, like, from their car. And I'm thinking of those people that are like, yeah, I can spend two hours on an episode. I can't spend 10 hours on an episode. So if that's all the time you have, that's gonna set you up so much more than spending no minutes and going in completely cold.

[Jordan Harbinger]

It's funny because my answer to this actually changed during our discussion. So what I believe is, like, the smallest thing that you can do to improve your guest experience is asking, do you like to do things on the fly, or do you want me to send you a prep email early? I think that that is going to dictate how much work you have to put into it. Because if you have a guest that's like, no, man, I've talked about this stuff for 10 years. I could talk about it all day long. Just throw it at me. I'm totally cool with that. Or if you have someone who's a little bit more hesitant, like, you know, I'd like to prepare my answers earlier. Like, it's going to make your guests feel so much more comfortable about what they're going into, that you value them. And then also, you might get lucky, and maybe you have someone, someone like a Kevin who can just, like, show up and be awesome, and that's your great episode. And then you don't have to do as much prep as you would have had to do with somebody who needs a little bit more coaxing, needs a little bit more hand holding.

[Albin]

I love Jordan that you asked for. Hey, what's everyone's one takeaway? We all have at least four.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Well, you know what? Our listeners can choose which one they want to go with.

[Albin]

All right, so, Jordan, it's sound off. The part of the show where people write in and we talk about it. The top of the bit here says, this is what's in the outline. Jordan forgot the dinosaur email. Or did she? And then you have, like, the purple smirking emoji face with horns. I think that's the official name.

[Priscilla]

A devil.

[Albin]

What is this?

[Jordan Harbinger]

Okay, so. So as I said in, like, our previous episode of Buzzcast, if you send us sound off responses anywhere other than just the fan mail link, I risk forgetting about it. And this was one that slipped through the cracks, even though it was, like, a very good email that Priscilla had actually forwarded to us because she's good at her job. She makes sure that everyone gets the messages that they need. It's just that Jordan did not translate it to the episode. This is from Devin. This was sent back in April 11th and it says hello, best browse support. I have an an to the latest buzzcast sound off and a few corrections. Can you please forward them to the Buzzcast team? Thank you. So Devin said that he uses Pocket cast and the one RSS related feature you like the most is pod rolls. It says I also have corrections for the post show. What Colossal created are in no way direwolves. They are gray wolves with 20 direwolf gene edits and with some direwolf traits. As for T. Rexes, evidence shows that they were probably both predators and scavengers. And according to the website the American Museum of Natural History, while juvenile T. Rexes likely had feathers, it is unlikely that adult Tyrannosaurus rexes actually had feathers. Sorry, Jordan.

[Albin]

Let's go, Devin.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Boo Devin.

[Albin]

Good.

[Priscilla]

Womp, womp, womp, womp.

[Albin]

I feel like I don't remember. I didn't want to go back and read the transcript, but I feel like I was getting corrected on air and Devin came in dropping the knowledge bombs, picking me up.

[Jordan Harbinger]

I was so certain that I was correct on this. Come on.

[Albin]

One workaround Priscilla that I've seen, I think Kate did this. She got an email that was sound off and instead of forwarding it to us because she knows that our rule is we only do the stuff that's sent in through fan mail, she just went and she texted the content. She copy and pasted it it and texted it in herself. And so I was like, oh, I'm noticing this is from Jacksonville, Florida. And they've also sent in multiple before. It's Kate taking people's emails, getting them into the proper channel.

[Jordan Harbinger]

So that is so smart.

[Priscilla]

That's innovation. And that's Kate for you. Yes, that makes total sense that she's like, how can I solve this for this podcaster and make sure that it gets talked about? Because what I do is I take it and I put it in basecamp and then you guys have access to it. But you're right, it's not coming through the channel that you expect. And so when you look for sound off, you're not looking at that post in basecamp. But Kate knows what she's doing. That is a great strategy. Okay, so now I'm gonna have to start doing that. Go Kate.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Go Kate.

[Priscilla]

Okay, so Derek from Intentional Teaching wrote in and he said Instagram used to be so great when it was just photo centered. I'm not here for the videos. And if you don't make videos. Then no one will see your stuff. I've leaned back into Flickr since it's so old school. Just photos. Nothing but photos.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Flickr is a deep cut.

[Priscilla]

It is. I never used Flickr. I remember I had friends that used Flickr. And I have always loved photos. So I can agree with Derek on this. There is a place for video for sure. But I love. When I first started using Instagram, I signed up for it before I even knew that it was a photo sharing app. I thought it was just editing. I think I started using Instagram in, like, early 2012. I think I was in the first six months of Instagram users and I told everyone about it. Cause it was such a cool photo editing platform. And even now when I post things, I just want to post nice, pretty pictures for people to look at. I am not trying to create the next funny video.

[Jordan Harbinger]

If no one knows what we're talking about, they're like, this has nothing to do with podcasting. It kind of does. It's tying into a few episodes ago where Alvin was talking about video podcasting and how can we just keep the thing, the original thing. Instagram used to be photos. Now it's got videos and reels and so on.

[Albin]

Yeah. Twitter used to be text and then added images. Now it's videos and reels and everything kind of moves more and more. Facebook used to be about friends 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 was we were looking for strange marketing tactics and that people have tried to actually work. And we got four. And they're all different and they're unique and I love them. So thank you to everybody who wrote in first was from Scott of the Talk with History podcast. A surprisingly good marketing strategy is writing your podcast name in your car's back window.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Smart.

[Albin]

On road trips, we get a good number of folks reaching out saying they saw it on our car and locally it started conversations in the parking lot or with other parents. Scott, awesome idea. If I was driving on a long drive. And you know how, like, you get paired up with people on the highway?

[Priscilla]

Yeah.

[Albin]

We're like, oh, we were just. We passed that car and then we got off and now we're back on and we see them again. Again. And you saw four times, like, Talk with History. And you're like, I'm bored. Let's check out this random podcast. I totally see it working. I love it and it's cool to hear that it's actually worked.

[Jordan Harbinger]

But you got to make sure that you're a nice driver, though, because if you cut someone off and they get mad, they're going to go leave a one star review and stuff sucks.

[Albin]

Podcast is bad. Driving's worse.

[Priscilla]

Well, and they might not just leave a bad review. They might actually take a picture of your car and then use the QR code that you've put on your window and email Buzzsprout support and say, hey, this podcaster is bad at driving. They shouldn't have a podcast.

[Albin]

What?

[Priscilla]

That's happened before?

[Albin]

Was it. Wait, was it Scott?

[Priscilla]

I don't know. It was a long time ago. But just be careful. If you're going to put your name of your podcast in your window, you want to make sure you're driving in a way that's a good representation of your podcast.

[Albin]

We got to go back and find this email. So this is real though. This is how happened.

[Priscilla]

It is real. Someone emailed us in support.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Wow.

[Priscilla]

And they said, this is a bad driver.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah, that's rough.

[Albin]

I will be so happy.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Hey, Editing Jordan. Just reporting that we did in fact find the road rage email. And it was not Scott, though that would have been really funny if it was. And then Matthew from Girl dad Nation said, creative marketing strategies. I had a short film featured in a dad film festival the past past three years. Great way to promote my girl donation podcast. And this year's film was nominated for an award. And I had coloring pages with my logo given out at the festival. That's awesome.

[Priscilla]

That's really cool.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah, I think that's like a very hard marketing strategy is to make like a short film, though. Like, that's a lot of work.

[Priscilla]

Talk about prep and hours of prep going into that.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah, but if you already have one up your sleeve, like, go for it. Get the most out of it.

[Priscilla]

Okay, so Steve Stewart from Steve Stewart Podcast Productions wrote in and he said, my weird growth hack from the past isn't all that strange, but I rarely ever seen it done. For April Fool's Day 2014, I took over hosting duties for three of my peers shows. Whoa. I produced each episode in the original show's format, including getting a co host and guest for the Stacking Benjamin show and interviewing Jared Easley for his Starve the Doubts podcast. As a result, my own podcast grew by 20% over the next few weeks, and I maintained about 10% of that growth in the months following. That said, I would not recommend doing multiple Podcasts like this, it nearly killed.

[Albin]

Yeah, Steve, super impressive idea. And it's cool to hear that Your show grew 10% from April Fool's Day. And our last answer came in just today. I think Jacob from Success is a Myth wrote in and said the craziest podcast marketing strategies that's actually worked for me is to leave unhinged comments on viral posts on social media. It sparks curiosity in people who go there just to read the comments.

[Priscilla]

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

[Albin]

I was like, okay, this is great. So I went and I looked up Jacob. I watched stuff about the Success Is a Myth podcast, which he does a lot of really cool short form video for. Jacob is, it looks like a video produced producer and very, very good video producer and now is doing this podcast. So it's all very well done. I could not find a single unhinged comment though. So, Jacob, fan of the show now, great work on social media. Will you please send us some of these unhinged comments? We need some examples of, like, what do you. How unhinged do you have to be to get people interested and yet not, you know, be a detriment for your show? So we need. We need some proof.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah. And what some people consider unhinged, others might consider hinged. Right.

[Albin]

So, Priscilla, since you are guesting with us today, do you have a question you'd like to ask for Sound off?

[Priscilla]

Um, yes, I do. I would love to know, what tip do you have for preparing a guest for an interview? I think it's clear from this conversation that Alvin and I have slightly different strategies because we prepare differently. And so I'd be interested to hear from other people who prepare for podcasts, Podcasts in their own way, what tips

[Albin]

they have and bonus points if you've got a little story there, because I know a lot of these tips come from something went wrong, Something went well. Yeah. Give us a little bit of background to why you're giving us that tip.

[Jordan Harbinger]

A short story. Don't make me have to do some more editing work on a response. All right, so to have your response featured on our next episode, be sure to tap the text to show link in the show notes to send it in. And as always, thanks for listening and keep podcasting.

[Albin]

All right, Jordan, Priscilla, now that I've got you both here, I need some new TV recommendations. The two, both of you, you guys watch a lot of shows. You regularly post in the company software. You're like, oh, here's what I'm watching. Now. And we recently went through. We started cutting out old subscriptions that we're not watching shows on those anymore more. So we need some new recommendations. What do you guys got?

[Priscilla]

All right, well, what subscription service do you have?

[Albin]

Well, everything's still active for like four days, so.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Okay, okay.

[Albin]

If you've got something, you're like, oh, you've got to watch this and it's only available on Hulu Max plus or whatever, then like, we got four days.

[Jordan Harbinger]

It's funny because, like Priscilla and I, I think we have our own little television club and it's just like population two. Like we'll watch something and then call each other and talk for like half an hour.

[Priscilla]

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

[Albin]

All right, well, welcome back to Priscilla and Jordan's Television Club. Today I've got the two hosts of the club tell us what to watch.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Okay. I mean, first off, we have to address the traitors. Albin, have you watched the Traitors?

[Albin]

No. What is the Traitors?

[Jordan Harbinger]

This is on Peacock. And. And it is an incredible reality competition show that's a little bit like murder mystery theater meets, I don't know, like

[Priscilla]

Mafia game with some housewives sprinkled in.

[Albin]

Oh, wait, wait, wait. Is this traitor as in like, as in Benedict Arnold turncoat trader.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yes, trader.

[Albin]

Like out like running a country store Trader.

[Priscilla]

Yeah.

[Jordan Harbinger]

No. Yeah.

[Priscilla]

So the two sentence premise of this show is that a bunch of kind of known reality stars get put into a castle in Scotland and two or three of them are traitors and the rest of them are faithfuls. And the faithfuls try to vote out the traitors and they complete challenges.

[Albin]

Oh, it's Mafia.

[Priscilla]

And it's exactly like Mafia and it's fantastic. Alan Cumming hosts it. He's so good. It's super camp. It's just a really, really fun watch.

[Jordan Harbinger]

It is fun.

[Priscilla]

If you like reality shows or murder mysteries, then you'll really like it. Or like murder series if you're looking for something scripted. I just watched the Residence on Netflix, which was a really fun watch. It's kind of like a whodunit that happens in the White House and you meet all these people who work in the White House. I wanna say it's like nine or 10 episodes. It's really well done.

[Albin]

Yeah, I don't like getting into politics though.

[Jordan Harbinger]

No, no, no, it's not political at all.

[Priscilla]

It's very light and easy to watch.

[Jordan Harbinger]

That's on my list too.

[Priscilla]

But the thing I is that it's written. It feels like it's written in a way that allows you to just watch one episode at a time and not feel like you have to binge it. So many shows these days that are written for streaming services are written specifically to have the payoff be four episodes in so that you feel like you have to binge four episodes in order to get the payoff. And so this is really nice because it doesn't. It's not written like that. So there's payoff at the end of every episode and then there's like a little teaser for the next one so that you wanna watch the next one one. But I was able to consume one episode at a time without feeling like I have to watch the first 10 minutes of the next episode before I can turn this off. And I really appreciated that kind of more traditional writing of television. So the resonance on Netflix is really fun.

[Albin]

You know, that was one of the great things about the old, like sitcoms which were made to fit into like 30 minute slots and they're 23 minutes.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Albin]

Because they were all self contained. You could watch any Seinfeld episode out of or. And you generally know the characters. And even if there is some through line that's a couple episodes long, you really don't need to watch the other ones. You kind of get it. You get it. And the payoff always is at the end and you're done.

[Priscilla]

I want to clarify, what I mean is not just that each episode is an individual story. There is an arc and you need to watch it from the beginning, but it wraps up enough for you at the end of an episode that you don't feel like you have to keep. It's not like they leave you on a cliffhanger every single episode. Which I think is what a lot of television does these days for streamers.

[Albin]

Some of them, they do it at the end of the season and they're. You're like, oh, what's going to happen? And they're like, oh, by the way, we weren't renewed by Netflix. And they're like, you, yes, what is going on?

[Priscilla]

Or they're like, you have to wait two years before we're going to tell you what happened. And by the time those two years have gone by, I almost don't care.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Cough. Severance.

[Priscilla]

Cough.

[Albin]

I was just thinking Severance. Jordan and I did watch season one of Severance and so we talked about it, but then we, when we, when season two came out, we're both like trying to remember, could not remember what 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't remember goats.

[Jordan Harbinger]

What about the goats? We gotta know about the goats.

[Albin]

Yeah.

[Jordan Harbinger]

And Alvin, you want recommendations? Speaking of severance, if you like Severance, you need to watch Silo. It is based on the Wool series, or I guess it's. He retitled it to the Silo series, but it was originally called, like, it was Wool.

[Albin]

First book. Yeah.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah. And it's. It's a really good read. I remember it being like a quick read, even though I think it is, like a longer book. It's one of those, like, bingeable sort of things. So my husband, I were so excited when Silo came out and they have done such a great service to that story. And it is just very post apocalyptic sci fi adventurous and like, dramatic at the same time. You don't really know what's going on. It feels very much like that. It has the same tension that Severance has that makes it so compelling. So you have to watch Silo. It is so good.

[Albin]

Okay, well, we got some good recommendations. Traders, which is not about Trading Post. It's about, like, backstabbing. You had another one, Silo, and then Priscilla said there's another one on Netflix about the residents. The residents, yeah. So three great shows.

[Priscilla]

Yeah.

[Jordan Harbinger]

Yeah.

[Albin]

And I want to know when this is going to be a podcast. So if other people are interested in this, if you want Priscilla and Jordan to start the movie club and you want to be a part of part of the movie club, smash that text button, send in a message, let us know. Do you want this show?